The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 531: The Qing Dynasty is about to end, Xianfeng is about to flee! (Please subscribe, please vote)

The turbid current of the Yongding River wrapped the bloody setting sun, and the artillery fire dyed the sky a rusty red. The red horse under Li Hongzhang's crotch stepped uneasily on the shaking ground, and his knuckles holding the telescope were pale blue - on the other side of the lens, in the gap of the Taiping Army's right wing, Huang Wenjin's square formation was like honey being eaten by ants, but it always stubbornly maintained the last line of defense.

"Left Brigade 1 and 2! Push forward!" The Beiyang Army commander's roar tore through the thick smoke. Three thousand elite soldiers stepped on the scorched earth to the rhythm of French military drums, and the forest of bayonets reflected the chilling white light. The ground trembled under the neatly-knit thousand-layer cloth shoes, as if a sleeping dragon was turning over.

On the watchtower three miles away, Yang Xiuqing's one eye bulged out. The Seven-Star Sword was swung out suddenly: "Release the Nian army!" Before the words were finished, the golden banner had already fallen from the wooden platform five meters high. Zhang Zongyu licked the iron smell on his saber, and the yellow cloth armor squeezed his chest that kept rising and falling - the smoke column rising from the north made his blood boil, that was the tens of thousands of Nian army cavalry led by his uncle Zhang Lexing!

"Father, open your eyes!" Two thousand Nian Army cavalrymen rushed out like a flood. Amid the whistling sound of the two-meter-long muskets tearing through the air, the right wing column of the Huai Army was caught off guard and fell like a wave of wheat swept by a sickle. Li Hongzhang turned his head suddenly and roared from his throat: "Lancers! Get on your horses!" But it was too late. Huang Wenjin's general flag had been raised from the square formation, and the Taiping Army's brown bass bayonets merged into a silver wave, rushing towards the other two columns of the Beiyang Army.

On the south bank of the Yongding River, Zeng Guoquan's chestnut horse suddenly stood up. A lead bullet penetrated the horse's neck, and blood mist sprayed on the "Zeng" character on the Ji Camp's flag. The ninth commander, who had rolled into the mud, wiped the blood and mud off his face and actually pulled out half a bloody tooth. "Beat the drum!" He kicked away the personal soldiers who came to support him, "Protect the orthodox teachings! Punish the evil and the false!" Ten horizontal teams changed their formations in response, and the Confucian scholars in dark clothes rushed to the front holding the "Book of Filial Piety". The sound of chanting scriptures and the sound of gunfire were strangely intertwined.

Three hundred steps away, Hong Rengan's large banner with the Chinese character "Gan" fluttered in the hail of bullets. Under the yellow silk umbrella of the fake Hong Xiuquan, Lai Wenguang was shouting in the dialect of western Guangdong: "Damn it! Guangxi boys, follow me!" The two thousand elite soldiers of the old camp counterattacked to the tune of "A Man Should Be Self-reliant". At the moment when the barrel of the brown bass gun was hot, the front row of Hunan soldiers seemed to be overturned to the ground by an invisible giant hand.

As the sun set over the city of Wanping, Zhang Lexing's cavalry had already crossed the Yongding River like a swarm of locusts. In Huang Shijie's Yingying Camp, the new Minié rifles spewed out white smoke, but the Nian Army cavalry turned into dozens of black streams, passing through the formation and rushing towards the Yongding River. In the telescope of Zhang Shusheng, the general of the Third Regiment of the Beiyang Army, the splashes of water caused by tens of thousands of horses' hooves looked like blood waves surging in the sunset - they were actually heading for the flank of the Jiying Camp!
"Change formation! Change formation!" Zeng Guoquan's roar was mixed with the choking gunpowder smoke. Five thousand Hunan troops shrank into three iron hedgehogs in an instant, and the two-meter-long spears peeked out from the gaps in the square formation with cold rays. Amid the clanging sound of sabers chopping on the hardwood spear shafts, Zhang Lexing suddenly reined in his horse and laughed: "Zeng the Barber! Look at my gift!" Dozens of messengers rose from the Nian Army formation, with the apricot-yellow flags on their backs pointing to the northeast - the black smoke on the top of Beijing City was too thick to dissipate.

On the watchtower of Changxindian, Yang Xiuqing's gilded telescope suddenly froze. In the lens, the long-silent "Zeng" flag in the center of the Hunan-Huaihe coalition army was slowly moving forward! The East King's Adam's apple rolled, and the Seven Star Sword pointed fiercely at the east bank of the Yongding River: "Yang Fuqing! Bian Sanniang! Cross the river for me! Take down Wanping City!"

At this point in the fierce battle, there were still tens of thousands of elite soldiers under the East King's command stationed in the middle, building up their strength, just waiting for this moment.

Hundreds of yellow flags suddenly rose up in the quiet Taiping Army positions on the west bank of the river. Old Guangxi men with red scarves on their heads waded through the water carrying ladders. The brave soldiers in the front row carried foreign rifles, held grenades, and hung the "True Covenant" with the image of Hong Xiuquan on their chests. In the Shandong Army fortifications on the opposite bank, the Kong family soldiers who spoke Shandong dialect were horrified to find that the long-haired people on the opposite bank were so dense that they almost covered the entire Yongding River!

"Fire!" As Yang Fuqing slashed with his saber, the shrapnel fired by the forty 12-jin mortars that had just been carried across the Yongding River blasted the Wanping city wall into pieces. The red dress of Bian Sanniang, who was riding a horse, was particularly dazzling in the twilight. The leggings of the Guangxi veterans under her command had long been soaked in blood, but they still climbed up the battlements by stepping on the bodies of their companions. Suddenly, a thunderclap rang out, and a ten-foot-high column of smoke rose from somewhere in the city - it turned out that the Qing army's ammunition piled in the city was detonated by the Taiping Army's shrapnel!

"May God bless you, Father God"

Amid cheers, the Taiping Army launched a general attack on Wanping City like a tide!

Yang Xiuqing's telescope fell to the ground with a clatter. The bloodshot eye of the Eastern King stared at the northeastern sky, where the black smoke over Beijing was getting thicker and thicker! It seemed that the main force of Zhang Lexing's cavalry had come to the Yongding River, and they should not have the spare strength to break through Beijing. Could it be that Luo Yaoguo's people entered the city?
Yang Xiuqing's expression gradually became gloomy!
He roared through his teeth: "Push all my guards forward, we must..." Before he finished speaking, the guards suddenly pointed at their right wing and cheered: "Victory, victory, Li Yaotou has retreated!"

Yang Xiuqing turned his head and saw Li Hongzhang's large banner moving slowly southward. Thousands of infantry and cavalry of the Beiyang Army formed a battle formation around the green flag and were gradually moving away from the battlefield.

On the east bank of the Yongding River, the Beiyang Army was responsible for the left wing of the Qing army, but there was no more fire and smoke, and most of the Beiyang Army there had probably fled.

"Fuck your mother!" Yang Xiuqing cursed, but his tone was full of surprise.

"Your Highness the King of the East, do you want to give chase?" The voice of Yang Xiuqing's "foreign military advisor" Winster White was heard.

"No need, Your Highness, Beijing is more important!" Yang Xiuqing's number one confidant Hou Qianfang immediately came up and made a suggestion.

Yang Xiuqing nodded heavily: "Yes, Beijing is important. The Heavenly King only wants Beijing!"

Chaoyang Gate, Youzheng.

When Su Sanniang's cavalry rushed to the outside of Chaoyang Gate, they were greeted by countless refugees, most of whom were the elderly, the weak, women and children in the banner, who rushed out of Chaoyang Gate crying, "The Qing Dynasty is fallen."

She looked at the women and children of the Bannermen pouring out like a tide, and her willow-shaped eyebrows slightly frowned under her apricot-yellow headscarf. These "masters" who used to be arrogant and arrogant were now as panicked as field mice whose nests had been disturbed. What exactly happened in Beijing? Could it be that Yang Xiuqing had broken in?
"Make way! Make way!" The old nanny wearing the white banner holding a crying baby, her embroidered cheongsam covered in mud, bumped into Su Sanniang's horse like a headless fly.

"Capture her!" Su Sanniang gave the order. Two cavalrymen immediately dismounted and rushed forward, one grabbed the old woman, and the other snatched the baby she was holding and held it high. The old woman then saw the first female general of the Heavenly Kingdom riding an Indian Fold-eared horse! "Spare her, spare her!" The old woman was so scared that she couldn't even beg for mercy.

"What's going on in Beijing?" Su Sanniang asked sharply, "Is it Yang Dongwang who called?"

The old maid trembled and said, "I dare not deceive the queen, Long Mao. No, it is that the heavenly soldiers have not yet entered the city, but Senggelinqin's Mongolian cavalry and Du Han's Shandong beggars have rebelled, killing and burning everywhere in the city. The Qing Dynasty is doomed!"

Su Sanniang snorted, "It's what you deserve. It's your retribution!"

Then he said to the Taiping soldier holding the baby, "Give the child back to her. We will go into the city and capture Xianfeng!"

"Yes! Enter the city and capture Xianfeng!"

In the twilight, a scarlet Taiping Army flag with the words "The Great Wall Will Never Fall" fluttered in the wind. Five or six hundred Heavenly Kingdom cavalrymen, who were marching in a hurry, lined up and marched into the Chaoyang Gate, which had been unguarded for a long time, shouting "The Taiping Army is here" all the way, and headed towards the still majestic Forbidden City.

All I saw along the way was a scene of doomsday!
There was looting, killing and burning everywhere. There were corpses everywhere and the living people wailing and crying everywhere.

Suddenly, Su Sanniang heard a hoarse voice reciting a poem loudly: "The prosperity of the past has all been buried, and there is nothing left. The inner storehouse has been burned to ashes, and the streets are full of the bones of officials and nobles."

Fucheng Gate, 3:15 pm, You time.

Na La Lan, holding Zaichun who was already fast asleep in her arms, was riding in a two-wheeled carriage. They were surrounded by Mathilde's cuirassiers and a small number of Hunan Army and Huai Army officers and soldiers, as well as some Eight Banners soldiers who looked back every few steps - these Eight Banners soldiers were all Yuan Bao's subordinates. They had fought for most of the day with the Beggar Army and Mongolian cavalry released by Su Shun. Not only did they lose most of their men, but they also became stray dogs with no way to go. They had no choice but to return to the Forbidden City to see if they could take out some "souvenirs" in the chaos. As a result, they met Mathilde's cuirassiers, and were taken out of the city together.

In addition, Feng Guifen, Guo Songtao and other officials of the Hunan-Huaihe faction also fled with Nara. However, there was no panic on their faces, and the plan for escape had actually been made long ago. Li Hongzhang and Mathilde believed that Beijing could not be defended, so how could they not make preparations? Before the Battle of Yongding River, a brigade of Beiyang Army, under the command of Li Wenxuan and Li Hanzhang, had already taken silver dollars, ammunition, and firearms moved from Tianjin and hid in the Western Hills. They occupied several courtyards and temples of the royal palace, waiting for Li Hongzhang, Mathilde, Nara and the little emperor to meet up.

It would be better if Beijing City didn't exist! Without those Eight Banners children and corrupt officials who got in the way, wouldn't they still be among the Three Dukes?
In front of the Shouhuang Palace in Jingshan, at the beginning of the Xu hour.

The crooked locust tree was baring its fangs and claws in the twilight. Xianfeng staggered onto the blue brick steps, looking at the Beijing city full of fire, noise, and crying. For a moment he was in a trance.

What year is it today? The fifth year of Xianfeng or the seventeenth year of Chongzhen?

Who am I? Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, or Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty?

"Your Majesty, please change your clothes quickly. I will protect you and fight you out!"

Just as he was in a trance, he suddenly heard Zeng Jia Linshu's voice coming from behind him. Xianfeng turned around and found that the old man had changed into ordinary people's clothes and was holding a bundle in his hand, which probably contained clothes.

Is this to protect me and escape? What a loyal minister!

Thinking of this, Xianfeng looked at the crooked tree where Chongzhen was hanged, sighed and said, "The world is so vast, where should I go?"

"There are so many places to go!" Zeng Jia Linshu smiled, "There are so many places to go. I will take the emperor to the French Concession in Tianjin first, and then..."

Xianfeng interrupted with a wave of his hand: "Don't say more, I understand. Change my clothes for me, I would rather die than be Chongzhen!"

(End of this chapter)