The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 226: Wu Peifu's Audience

This small group of people was quite special. Each of them had a long spear hanging on the back of their horse.

Although except for Wu Peifu who was wearing black riding boots that gleamed in the sun, the rest of them were wearing leggings that only soldiers would wear, but each of them had a pistol with a cowhide box slung across their shoulders, and each of them also had a sheathed saber hanging around his waist. They were dressed like both officers and ordinary soldiers, but more like a cavalry team of the New Army.

After entering the palace gate, the small group of people did not continue to move forward, but at the command of the leading young officer, they led their horses in a line and stopped at the palace gate.

The young officer took off the saber from his waist, pulled out a shiny blue pistol from the leather holster on his belt and handed it to the guards who followed him. Then he opened his arms for the surprised guards to check.

Generally, when meeting the emperor, one only had to hand over the weapons he was carrying and did not need to be searched by the guards. I don't know whether it was the instruction of the Military Affairs Council or the arrangement of Li Lianying, but after a slight pause at first, the guards still searched the young officer's body, and then politely gestured for the young officer to follow a eunuch who came to greet them to walk towards the flower hall.

Zai Yi, Ronglu, Gangyi and others were very satisfied with the behavior of the young officers, especially the small group of cavalrymen who stayed inside the palace gate. Everyone stood still with their horses. Not only did no one walk around, no one even talked. Even the tall horses stood quietly beside them, only occasionally shaking their heads, wagging their tails and snorting.

Cixi shifted her admiring gaze from the small group of cavalrymen to the tall war horses whose furs shone golden in the sun, and said with a smile.

"This Teng Xingfu is really good at military ceremony. In order to show the might of his vanguard army, he really put a lot of effort into it. Even the horses of this small group of cavalrymen have almost the same fur color. I guess it must have cost a lot of money."

Although Cixi did not express any dissatisfaction with what she said, Ronglu, Zai Yi and Gangyi were shocked when they heard it.

Although these words did not express any dissatisfaction, they were definitely not a compliment, especially since they were said by Cixi.

Before Ronglu could speak, Zai Yi smiled and said to Cixi, "Empress Dowager, I have heard that Yulu said in his memorial a while ago that Teng Xingfu had fought several battles with the Russian cavalry, and they were all victorious. A large number of Russian war horses were captured. According to Yulu's memorial, there were more than a thousand horses."

Perhaps he had not explained it clearly enough, so Zai Yi added, "I often deal with Russians in the Zongli Yamen. Their four-wheeled carriages all use war horses like this. The Russians call them Don horses, which are a kind of horse that is unique to Russia. Not only are they tall and strong, but they also have a distinctive feature, which is that most of these so-called Don horses have golden fur. Judging from the fur color of their horses, they are the same kind of Don horses as the Russians."

Zai Yi talked for a long time just to make one thing clear, these horses were not obtained by Teng Yuzao on purpose, nor were they purchased at a high price for show, these horses were captured by Teng Yuzao's vanguard army when it defeated the coalition forces.

Teng Yuzhao is now the only one who can maintain his son's status as the eldest prince. Whether his son can replace the current Emperor Guangxu who is under house arrest in Yingtai by Cixi is largely determined by Teng Yuzhao. To be more precise, it is determined by the battle record of Teng Yuzhao's vanguard army. Zai Yi will never turn a blind eye and sit idly by anything that is not favorable to Teng Yuzhao.

Zai Yi's explanation made Cixi look a little happy, but she suddenly frowned and asked, "Have other armies captured any Russian war horses? Or I often heard Yu Lu mention that the Japanese cavalry is very arrogant, have you ever captured any Japanese cavalry war horses?"

Gangyi withdrew his gaze from Wu Peifu, who was walking towards him, and glanced at Ronglu, saying, "Empress Dowager, only Nie Gongting's front army had a lot of spoils, and Hu Dianjia's rear army even seized two Russian cannons. The other armies only seized dozens or even hundreds of rifles from the coalition forces, and no one has seized any foreign war horses."

Seeing Ronglu's indifferent look, Gangyi added another fierce blow, "It is said that our cavalry dare not go into battle now."

Although Ronglu knew that what Gangyi said was the truth, he still felt extremely uncomfortable when he heard it.

To put it more deeply, Gangyi's words were actually an allusion to accusing the Wuwei Army he formed of not being successful, and even the cavalry of various units were afraid of the enemy and avoided fighting.

Sure enough, Gangyi's words elicited a cold snort from Cixi.

"Wu Peifu, the liaison adjutant to the president of the Beiyang Zhili Vanguard Army, requests an audience."

Wu Peifu, who had already arrived at the door of the flower hall, could not see the scenery inside the hall clearly, but he knew that someone might be watching him inside. Otherwise, he, a small expelled scholar and a minor officer of the vanguard army, would not be worthy of the courtesy of having the main door opened so early.

Cixi raised her hand slightly, and Li Lianying, who was standing behind her, began to draw out his shrill but powerful voice.

"The Queen Mother called in."

A person of Wu Peifu's status is not worthy of being greeted with the word "please". The only word to let him in is "call".

Hearing Li Lianying's call to come in, Wu Peifu straightened his wide-brimmed hat and adjusted his military uniform. Then he strode into the flower hall with his head held high.

It was sunny outside, but it was a little dark inside the flower hall. The strong contrast in light made it difficult for Wu Peifu to see the scene in the flower hall clearly. However, he could still see the elegant old lady in a phoenix crown and a bridal robe sitting on the main couch.

Wu Peifu strode to the center of the flower hall, tapped his heels, straightened his body, and gave a standard vanguard salute to the old woman in the main seat. "Wu Peifu, the liaison adjutant of the president of the Beiyang Zhili Vanguard Army, respectfully wishes the Empress Dowager good health!"

"How dare you! Why don't you kneel when you see the old Buddha?"

As soon as Wu Peifu finished speaking, an attendant eunuch shouted angrily.

The eunuch's scolding made Zai Yi, Ronglu and Gangyi nervous. The three were just trying to find some words such as "Warriors are vulgar and don't know etiquette" to help Wu Peifu prevaricate, and then let Wu Peifu pay homage to Cixi, but they didn't expect that Wu Peifu had already saluted Cixi again in a dignified manner, and then said.

"Your Majesty, it's not that Ziyu doesn't know the court etiquette, it's just that my teacher repeatedly emphasized it in the army."

Zai Yi broke out in a sweat when he heard Wu Peifu actually brought up Teng Yuzao at this time. He coughed lightly, trying to stop Wu Peifu from continuing. At the same time, his mind was racing to find some excuses to help turn the situation around, but Wu Peifu remained unmoved and continued talking.

"A soldier must be courageous. Once you put on the military uniform, you must not be servile. Only a courageous soldier can dare to draw his sword and fight to the death with a powerful enemy even though he knows he cannot win. He will not be afraid even if his head and body are torn apart."

"Therefore, in the vanguard army, only military salutes are performed, and no one kneels. Even ordinary soldiers only respond to my master with military salutes when they see him."

Although Wu Peifu's words made sense, it was unknown whether Cixi would accept them. Zai Yi couldn't help but glance at Cixi who was sitting in the main seat.

Unlike Zai Yi, Ronglu's eyes lit up when he heard Wu Peifu's words. He was just about to praise Teng Yuzhao before Cixi made a statement so as to prevent Cixi from getting angry.

Cixi, who was sitting in the main seat, suddenly clapped her hands and cheered, "Good! Well said!"

"He knows he can't win, but he still dares to draw his sword and fight to the death with a strong enemy. He is not afraid even if his head is separated from his body."

"Teng Xingfu said it well!"

"It is precisely because the vanguard army has such momentum and courage that it dared to fight to the death with the foreign army soon after its formation, and was able to win battles again and again. If the Qing army had this kind of courage, why would the Qing Dynasty be afraid of the invasion of foreigners, and what would it be afraid of just a few foreigners!"

"Someone, give Wu Ziyu a seat."

"The Queen Mother is wise. Our Qing army lacks this kind of momentum, especially brave generals like Teng Xingfu who dare to fight to the death."

Gangyi, who had just been worried about Wu Peifu, also became excited at this moment, but he still did not forget to compliment Cixi.

"Congratulations, Queen Mother! Congratulations, Queen Mother! In this time of national crisis, the Qing Dynasty has produced a brave man like Teng Xingfu. It is truly God's help to our Qing Dynasty! What is there to fear from a mere foreigner?"

Zai Yi said, not wanting to be outdone, and then added, "Empress Dowager, Teng Xingfu's words are very powerful. We should publish them in the court bulletin so that all the officials of the Qing Dynasty can read them and see if they are ashamed or not."

Although Zai Yi did not explicitly say that those officials should feel ashamed when they saw Teng Yuzhao's words, everyone in the hall knew that Zai Yi was referring to those officials of the Southeast Mutual Protection who had agreed with the foreigners.

"allow."

Cixi went on to say with some excitement, "Not only the court bulletin, but also Teng Xingfu's words should be spread. The newspapers in the capital are good. Let all the newspapers reprint the achievements of Teng Xingfu's vanguard army, including the court bulletin and the capital newspapers, as well as Shanghai, Hankou, Guangdong, Qingdao and other places. As long as there are newspapers, we should find a way to let them reprint it, even if it costs some money."

Zai Yi said, "The Queen Mother is wise. The Military Affairs Office will do it right away. However, we don't have to spend money on those newspapers from other places. They are all vying for them. All the achievements of the vanguard army are now being published in newspapers in various places. The content published is no less crude than our official reports, and some details are even more colorful."

Ronglu, who had calmed down, reminded Zai Yi, "However, there should be some restrictions on these newspapers. Otherwise, these newspapers will randomly publish some fictitious things to attract people to buy, which will cause chaos."

Ronglu's words startled Cixi. She looked at Zai Yi, who seemed to be in a difficult situation. Gangyi, who was standing by, could only smile bitterly and said, "Reporting to the Queen Mother, there have been many rumors in the capital recently."

(End of this chapter)