The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 224 Empress Dowager Cixi's Lament

"In less than a day, the Beicang defense line that we worked hard on for more than ten days was lost!"

Such a result left Ronglu speechless.

Cixi was also horrified and murmured to herself, "They have more than 15,000 people, how could they be so useless!"

Gangyi glanced at Ronglu and said, "Empress Dowager, the Wuwei Army has wasted manpower and money, but... it is not very useful."

It was obvious that Gangyi's words had a hidden meaning. After all, the Wuwei Army was organized and trained by Ronglu. If the Wuwei Army was not of any use, how could the instigator in front of him be free of responsibility?

Gangyi began to shirk responsibility at this time. Everyone in the hall could hear it. Ronglu, who was feeling sad for Yulu, suddenly opened his sore eyes. A light flashed in his eyes, but then quickly dimmed, as if he didn't hear Gangyi's words. He just took out a silk handkerchief from his sleeve, slowly wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, and his hunched back slowly straightened up.

Gangyi's words were full of sarcasm, and the shrewd Cixi understood it clearly. She glanced at Ronglu from the corner of her eye and looked at Gangyi, "Aren't there still Lü Benyuan and He Yongsheng's troops training in Beicang?"

Unexpectedly, Cixi said this. Without thinking too much, Gangyi smiled bitterly and blurted out, "The training army is even better than the Wuwei Army."

As soon as he said this, Gangyi felt the loophole in his words and was speechless.

Cixi sighed softly and said, "In other words, the Wuwei Army is not a waste of manpower and money. They are still better than the training army and the Green Camp. In this way, the money is not wasted."

Cixi's words made Gangyi's face turn slightly red, and even Zai Yi beside him felt a little uncomfortable.

Cixi naturally saw the expressions of the two, but she didn't want to dwell on it any longer, so she asked, "Since you are all here, I still have the same question. Do you think that the Qing Dynasty can continue to fight this war?"

"Fight, of course we have to fight."

When Zai Yi heard Cixi bring up the question of whether to continue the war again, he spoke hurriedly, and then ignored Gangyi and spoke directly to Cixi.

"Empress Dowager, the Wuwei Army organized by Lord Rong is still very effective. Teng Xingfu fought well in Tianjin."

When Zai Yi said this, Cixi suddenly remembered that there was still a vanguard army in Tianjin. She had just heard that Beicang was lost and Yu Lu committed suicide, which made her mind a little confused. However, Beicang, which was the main force of the Wuwei Army defending, was lost. Could the city of Tianjin still be saved?
Seeing Ronglu also pricked up his ears, Cixi asked anxiously, "How is Teng Xingfu in Tianjin now?"

Zai Yi glanced at Gang Yi, who said hurriedly, "Her Majesty, please allow me to report this. Yu Lu mentioned Teng Xingfu in his memorial, saying that Teng Xingfu had been defending Tianjin for more than ten days, and had won great victories in battles with the coalition forces inside and outside Tianjin. He had annihilated nearly 10,000 coalition troops, and had also sent thousands of the captured guns to the North Warehouse."

"It is precisely because of Teng Xingfu's repeated victories that the coalition forces have been forced to retreat again and again. Now there are more than 100,000 coalition troops under the city of Tianjin. Although they have entered the city and occupied the southern part of the city, they are still unable to defeat the vanguard army."

Gangyi's words surprised both Cixi and Ronglu. The 20,000-strong coalition forces defeated Yu Lu's main force in just one day, and even Yu Lu, the commander-in-chief, was forced to commit suicide. Yet, the vanguard army was able to hold Tianjin for more than ten days under the siege of more than 100,000 coalition forces!
Cixi asked in surprise, "How many soldiers does Teng Xingfu have?"

Gangyi replied, "According to Yu Lu's last report, Teng Xingfu's vanguard army has absorbed the forces of the three battalion training army and the front and rear armies of the Wuwei Army, as well as Liu Shijiu and Wang Decheng's Boxers, and the number of people is about 20,000 or more."

Ronglu sighed and said, "Empress Dowager, Teng Xingfu has been defending Tianjin for more than ten days. Although he has won many victories, there will always be casualties in war. As the saying goes, if you kill one thousand enemies, you will lose eight hundred of your own. After so many days, I guess he doesn't have many people left. Besides, the Boxers."

Having said that, Ronglu stopped talking in time, and just shook his head and sighed.

There is no doubt that Ronglu's words meant that the Boxers could not help the vanguard army much. However, in front of Zai Yi and Gangyi, who had always supported the Boxers, and Cixi, who was also deceived, Ronglu really couldn't say anything. Especially since Gangyi had just slandered him for training the Wuwei Army, if he spoke ill of the Boxers at this time, it might be seen as revenge and mutual attacks.

Gangyi snorted and said proudly, "Empress Dowager, Yulu also said in the memorial that Liu Shijiu and Wang Decheng had repeatedly made meritorious contributions in Teng Xingfu's army, and Teng Xingfu even recommended them for merit! It can be seen that the Boxers are still very capable of fighting." Ronglu couldn't help but snorted coldly and said, "There are tens of thousands of Boxers in the capital, but they can't take down Dongjiaominxiang for several months."

Gangyi countered, "That's because someone is interfering."

Cixi ignored the verbal battle between the two and asked, "In Tianjin City, isn't there a Zhang Decheng who is known as the best group in the world, and a Cao Futian from Jinghai? Where are they now?"

Zai Yi replied, "Reporting to the Queen Mother, Cao Futian also stayed in Tianjin to fight the enemy together with Teng Xingfu. According to what An Yulu said, Cao Futian seemed to have the intention of surrendering to the Vanguard Army, but Zhang Decheng had already led his world's best regiment to leave Tianjin before the coalition forces besieged the city."

Cixi snorted coldly and said, "This is also an ungrateful wolf that can never be tamed."

Cixi paused and asked again, "Is there any more news about Tianjin?"

Seeing that Cixi was somewhat dissatisfied with Zhang Decheng's Boxer Rebellion, Gangyi said hurriedly, "Yes, Yu Lu also said in his memorial that the night before Beicang fell, Teng Xingfu was still holding on in Tianjin City. The spies he sent reported that the sound of gunfire in Tianjin City lasted all night and only stopped at dawn. There was no news after that."

"The sound of gunfire rang out in Tianjin City all night long!"

Cixi and Ronglu were both horrified after hearing this. After being besieged by over 100,000 allied forces and fighting for a whole night, it seemed that the vanguard army was in great danger. Both of them looked gloomy.

After a long while, Cixi took a deep breath and said, "If Teng Xingfu were here, the war could continue, but now..."

Cixi hesitated for a moment, looked at Zai Yi and Gang Yi and said, "The foreigners have captured Beicang and Yangcun, and will move towards Tongzhou next, and then come to the capital. How do you plan to deal with it?"

They had just discussed this matter in the Military Affairs Office. Zai Yi said, "Empress Dowager, in addition to Dong Fuxiang's Wuwei Rear Army, which was transferred back to the capital before the incident, stationing in the capital to set up defenses, you should order Song Qing to lead the rest of the troops, such as Ma Yukun's troops, the remaining Wuwei Front Army, Lü Benyuan's Yi Army, and He Yongsheng's training troops to set up defenses and intercept along the way."

"No."

Ronglu stopped him and said, "It was a big mistake not to adopt Shoushan's suggestion and appoint Teng Xingfu as the general manager of Zhili Military Affairs. As the saying goes, the general is the courage of the army. Song Qing once said that during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, he could not defeat Japan alone. How can he defeat the eight countries now? It shows that he has no will to fight. If the general does not dare to fight, how can the army dare to fight!"

"If we still use this man as our leader, blocking him along the way will be nothing but empty talk."

Gangyi retorted, "No matter what, Song Qing is a veteran in the army. If we don't use him, is it possible that some senior official in the court will be sent to lead the troops?"

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel, Cixi coughed lightly, frowned and said, "It's a pity that my great Qing Dynasty has no good generals and talents. Just now a Teng Xingfu appeared. God is jealous of talents!"

"Don't argue about it. In my opinion, since there is no suitable candidate for the time being, why not just use Song Qing?"

Cixi, who seemed somewhat helpless, had just finished speaking when she saw the eunuch who was communicating with the emperor outside the door tiptoeing in.

Cixi waved her hand at the eunuch with some displeasure, "If there is nothing special, tell them that I am a little tired today, and we will talk tomorrow."

The eunuch who passed the message said carefully and softly, "Your Majesty, please allow me to report. Someone from the Military Affairs Office said that the commander of the Vanguard Army, Teng Xingfu, sent his student Wu Ziyu to deliver a memorial. He wanted to ask if Prince Duan would like to see this person?"

感谢：20220512083553362、161130202154338、20210710155251149、20210301105267512670、特普格斯、121224234703276、神秘的小凡哥等书友的月票、推荐票支持！！！

There are only two chapters today, and my head is dizzy!
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(End of this chapter)