The Travelers of the Heavens

"General Yuan, where have we been?"Wang Qi asked Yuanshu

"Prince, we are almost at the river, I have ordered soldiers to search for ferries to cross the river," Yuan Shu said

"The ferry is limited and there are too many of us. You immediately mobilize one division to block the pursuit of Chang Mao, and another three divisions to search for wood to build a pontoon bridge." Wang Qi said

""Yes." Yuan Shu responded and rode on his horse to go find someone to deliver the order.

Soon, more than 10,000 Kyushu troops turned around and went to the back of the team.

"Prince, don’t we still have a navy? How come we lack ships?" Li Xiaoman asked

"They are moving to the Bohai Sea and cannot enter the Yangtze River," Wang Qi said

"What if people from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom come after me?" Li Xiaoman asked

"We have no choice but to fight here. We still have 90,000 troops, so we are not afraid of them chasing us," Wang Qi said.

"It seems that this is the only way to go." Looking at the revolver in his hand, Li Xiaoman said helplessly.

Just as the Kyushu Army was setting up the rear line of defense, another Jiuzhou Army with about two divisions of troops arrived in Jiangning, only to find that Jiangning had been captured, and soon they encountered a messenger on horseback who knew Wang Qi's whereabouts, and rushed to the riverside to join Wang Yu. The Kyushu soldiers of these two divisions were originally stationed near Suzhou, but when they learned that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was besieging Jiangning At that time, two division commanders rushed to Jiangning to rescue the siege without orders, but they arrived a step too late. They fought with the Taiping Army who was entering the city and broke away from the battle.

Now more than 100,000 Jiuzhou Army gathered on the south bank of the Yangtze River. , although most of the heavy artillery and artillery shells have been destroyed, the small and medium-sized artillery and machine guns are well preserved, enough to face the Yangtze River and fight the Taiping Army for a decisive battle.

However, Wang Qi's"last stand" was obviously overly worried. The Taiping Army attacked Jiangning. The casualties in the battle were too great, with nearly 200,000 people injured and killed. This was the result of the ten-day battle between them and the Kyushu Army. Hong Xiuquan, the king of heaven, rejected the suggestion of some generals to pursue them, believing that"the Qing demons and foreigners have fled, and our own side The casualties are too great to pursue."

The Taiping Army occupied Jiangning, immediately cleaned up the battlefield and changed Jiangning to Tianjing.

After confirming that the Taiping Army was not pursuing them, Wang Qi breathed a sigh of relief, and he could lead his team across the river calmly.

After half a month of hard work, several wide pontoon bridges were finally erected. However, due to the huge amount of water in the Yangtze River, the pontoon bridges were swaying, and there was a danger of falling if they were not careful. Another month later, this huge and bloated team finally All crossed the Yangtze River.

Standing on the north bank of the Yangtze River and looking south of the Yangtze River, Wang Qi vowed to come back.

The team soon arrived in Xuzhou. After a short stay, Wang Qi and the surviving Qing court officials parted ways. More than 100,000 Kyushu troops escorted Wang Qi, his wife and related personnel went to the capital.

In July of the twenty-eighth year of Chengkang (1853 AD), Wang Qi arrived in the capital.

More than 100,000 Kyushu troops with guns and live ammunition forced the city into the stronghold, and the capital was shaken. Emperor Xianfeng could not Without doing anything against the ancestral etiquette, he agreed to Wang Qi's request and rented half of the Old Summer Palace to Wang Qi and his wife for temporary residence. Originally, Wang Qi planned to continue living in Heshen's mansion, but this mansion had already welcomed The new owner has now been renamed Prince Gong's Mansion.

Prince Gong Yixin, the half-brother of Emperor Xianfeng, has become the new owner of Heshen Mansion, so it is inappropriate for Wang Qi and his wife to live in it again.

This is why Wang Qi forced Emperor Xianfeng to rent the Old Summer Palace, and the rent was two million taels of silver per year. Only Emperor Xianfeng knew whether this deal was appropriate. That is to say, while renting the Old Summer Palace, Wang Qi accidentally saw the so-called"Five Spring in Old Summer Palace".The

"Five Spring of Old Summer Palace" refers to the five women of Emperor Xianfeng and the place where they lived.

Among them,"Xinghua Spring","Begonia Spring","Wulin Spring" and"Peony Spring" are Han women, which is what some works say"Han Chinese flowers". These women were beautiful and favored by Emperor Xianfeng.

And the fifth spring was also the"Spring of the World and the Family". A Manchu woman lived here. Her origin was not simple. She is a member of the Yehenala clan. Now eighteen years old, she is still a noble member of Emperor Xianfeng's family. In the future, she will rule the Qing Empire for nearly half a century, and people will also call her"Lafayette" or"Empress Dowager Cixi".

Cixi, who is now only 18 years old, has been in the palace for less than two years. She is an out-and-out little girl. She is not very popular with Xianfeng's husband. He ranks her with the"four springs". In fact, he thinks highly of her..

While Wang Qi and his wife were staying in the Old Summer Palace, internal strife broke out in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

This incident happened in the 31st year of Chengkang (the sixth year of Xianfeng in the land of Gongji, 1856 AD).

Hong Xiuquan, the king of heaven, was dissatisfied with Yang Xiuqing's control of him in the name of"Heavenly Father", so he secretly issued an edict to"kill Yang". A group of generals led by Wei Changhui and Chen Chengrong accepted the edict, but did not fully comply with it.

Here's why again. It turned out that the original intention of"killing Yang" was to kill Yang Xiuqing and his main party members. Others would be forgiven as long as they drew a clear line with Yang Xiuqing.

Wei Changhui, who was able to carry out the task, directly slaughtered Yang Xiuqing's family and all his tribesmen. Such behavior made people in Tianjing panic. Later, Wei Changhui massacred the mansion of Wing King Shi Dakai, causing Shi Dakai to be alienated from Tianguo. This incident was called"Tianjing" The internal strife of the"Beijing Incident" greatly shook the foundation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and also laid the groundwork for the eventual demise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a few years later.

However, the Qing court's internal troubles were not over, and foreign troubles arose again. The thirty-fourth year of Chengkang (the ninth year of Xianfeng on the mainland of Gongji, 1859 AD). Gaul colluded with Britain and brazenly launched a war against the Qing Empire.

The fleets of the two countries went straight to Dagukou and landed at Tanggu.

The Zhou Imperial fleet anchored in the Bohai Bay was bombarded by Gallic warships, killing and injuring hundreds of crew members.

When the news returned to the Old Summer Palace, Wang Qi decided to intervene in the war, at least to save the place where he currently lived.

The Qing court was a little panicked. At this time, more than 10,000 Gallic and British coalition forces passed through Jincheng and headed north to the capital. Along the way, the Qing army collapsed at the first touch, and the coalition forces quickly approached the capital.

In the Yangxin Hall of the Forbidden City, Emperor Xianfeng convened ministers to discuss countermeasures.

Sushun, the leading military minister, advocated that the emperor evacuate the capital and go to the summer resort for"hunting".

Emperor Xianfeng hesitated and agreed to his suggestion, but at this moment, news came that"the foreigners themselves were fighting with themselves."

What's going on?

It turns out that it was Wang Qi who ordered the newly appointed commander of the foreign corps and his half-brother Wang Duo to lead three divisions of 55,000 troops to Bali Bridge to intercept the coalition forces. Wang Qi's order to his brother was just Fight the Gauls, not the Britons.

This Wang Duo is the fourth son born to Wang Yu and the Empress. He is the eighth among all the sons. Why was he sent to take over as the commander of the foreign corps.

It turned out that four years ago, Wang Yu returned to the land of Jiuzhou and Ten Thousand Kingdoms to visit the Emperor and Concubine Pei. When the Emperor slept with him, he expressed the hope that his sons could get some military power.

Wang Yu also felt that it made sense after hearing this. None of his sons was serious enough to hold military power. This was not in line with the characteristics of a slave-grabbing agricultural empire.

Wang Yu promised the emperor and empress to send the eighth Wangduo to Chu Bufan to study for a few years, and then he was sent overseas to command the army in combat.

The emperor was very happy to see Wang Yu agreeing so happily, and told Wang Duo the news the next day. Coincidentally, Wang Duo also planned to ask his father to take him out for a walk at this time, so things fell into place.

After several years of study, Wang Duo cut his hair short and put on the uniform of a second-class three-star general, and took office.