The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 273: The Tangle of Lies

Prince Qing could be proud of his status and not want to come in person, but he should at least write a letter. He only sent a family member to deliver the message, and was arrogant and rude, which made Teng Yuzhao very angry.

Teng Yuzao smiled calmly and said, "Ignore him, and don't mind his unreasonableness."

Teng Yuzao glanced at Wei Jinghai and said calmly, "In the eyes of these people, we should all be slaves in their homes, and they, the descendants of Aisin-Gioro, are the masters."

"But don't worry, one day, I will make them look up to us."

Although Teng Yuzao did not say it explicitly, Wei Jinghai could tell that the home Teng Yuzao was talking about was the Qing court. Wei Jinghai also noticed that when Teng Yuzao mentioned the word home, there was a prefix in front of it, and he used the word "they".

Teng Yuzao continued, "Let's follow my strategy. We can't let any of those foreign soldiers go, otherwise it will cause confusion and doubts among the Chinese people."

"As for Zai Lan's family..."

Teng Yuzao took a deep breath, "Don't pay attention to him for now. This family member should be conveying some message to Liu Zhigang and Zhou Zhan, or Zai Lan has some instructions for them before leaving. Let him be. We may not be nice to this Prince Qing, but we still have to give Zai Yi some face."

Although there were still five or six staff officers in the operations room answering and making phone calls, and busy coming in and out, and even the lobby of the former Ministry of Revenue was extremely spacious and the two were still far away from these staff officers, Teng Yuzhao still lowered his voice and changed the subject and asked.

"Ningbo, how many people are still in the capital city and have not evacuated yet?"

Although Wei Jinghai felt somewhat puzzled by Teng Yuzao's sudden change of topic, he still spoke helplessly.

"According to Li Yaoting, there are still more than 100,000 people in the capital. These people are mainly divided into two categories. One category is the homes of ministers, and some noble families whose masters have left but still have many servants to guard their homes."

"Those merchants basically all ran away. Some small merchants ran away even more thoroughly, taking away their more valuable goods. However, due to the tight traffic in the city, the big merchants only took away their small fortunes. Their goods were left in the shops and warehouses, and only employees and security guards were left to guard them."

"The other category is the common people from small families and the elderly and weak who really can't leave. These people don't have much extra money at home, and they think they haven't done anything to anger or upset the foreigners, so they are not very worried about the foreigners entering the city."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "You have to think about one more thing. Starting tomorrow, we will find people in the city to make a large number of military uniforms for us. In order to speed up the process, we can offer a higher price."

"The cloth for making military uniforms can be taken from the shops and warehouses of those merchants. If there are people guarding them, you have to pay for them and then let them take the money and leave the capital immediately. If there is no one, you can just take the cloth directly."

Making military uniforms is a certainty. As Teng Yuzhao just said, we also need to train and reorganize the army. There are still tens of thousands of Boxers in the city. These people are all young and strong. From a physical point of view, there are basically no problems with these people.

However, Teng Yuzhao did not mention what to do with the residences of high-ranking officials and princes and ministers, and stopped talking. Although Wei Jinghai was a little confused, he did not ask any more questions.

"Boom boom boom", a series of thunder-like explosions came from the southeast of the outer city.

Wei Jinghai clapped his hands lightly and said with a smile, "Commander Li led the Second Mixed Concord Assault Battalion to start the battle at Guangqumen."

Wei Jinghai smiled and said, "The Marshal is truly a god. This conscienceless cannon is most useful in street fighting. One shot will cause houses to collapse. The foreign devils want to fight us in street fighting, but they have no chance at all. The end of those foreign devils has come."

What Wei Jinghai said was a compliment and of course the truth, but Teng Yuzhao couldn't be happy, and even felt a slight bitterness in his heart.

Teng Yuzhao did not feel pity for the foreign devils who were like lambs to be slaughtered. He was not worried about their death. On the contrary, he was worried that these people would not die but be captured.

What Teng Yuzhao was worried about was that the bombing of the unscrupulous artillery would destroy hundreds of houses near Guangqumen. Although the people had already left, where would they live when they returned after the war?

"Ring, ring, ring." The phone rang rapidly. A staff officer picked up the phone swiftly, and then shouted to Wei Jinghai with a happy face.

"Sir, Captain Liu called and said the foreign devils have surrendered, and he wants to talk to you."

"Surrendered! Good! That's great, Marshal. This time Wu Ziyu must be credited with a great achievement." Wei Jinghai was the first to cheer happily.

This was the embassy district that had been besieged by the Wuwei Rear Army, the Hushen Camp and the Boxers for more than two months, and Wu Peifu solved the problem with just such a small trick. How could Wu Peifu not be credited with a merit?

Teng Yuzao was also very happy. It was not a difficult battle for the vanguard army, but they did not use any brute force. They only used catapults, which were only used in the cold weapon era, and solved the problem easily. This was indeed worth being happy about.

Especially since this is the embassy district, it would be the best thing to force the other side to surrender in this way.

"Marshal, just now, a fake foreigner ran out of the fire holding a white flag. He said he was sent by the envoys of the various countries in the embassy district to tell us that they are ready to surrender."

A somewhat complacent and rough voice of Liu Shijiu came from the receiver, but then Liu Shijiu's voice turned disdainful.

"This fake foreigner also said that the foreign envoys said that they would only surrender to the vanguard army, and they would not surrender unless the Marshal said so himself."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Okay, I agree to their request. I will go and tell them right away."

"Commander."

Liu Shijiu's voice suddenly became a little angry again, and he raised his voice and spoke hatefully.

"Someone is spreading rumors now, saying that the imperial court has issued an order to agree to the foreigners' demands and to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. I have killed the person who spread the rumors."

Liu Nineteen's voice was so loud that Wei Jinghai beside him couldn't help but clap his hands and complain, "Hey, why don't you arrest him and interrogate him to find out who is behind this."

Teng Yuzao quickly signaled Wei Jinghai to keep quiet. He thought that Liu Shijiu was so indignant about this matter and even raised his voice on purpose. There must be something wrong.

In particular, when Liu Jiujiu joined the vanguard army, he had discussed with him the issue that the court would eventually take action against the Boxers. Also, as early as in Tianjin, the court had already made clear demands and had begun to ban the Boxers, which were not official groups. Liu Jiujiu knew this, and it was obviously unreasonable for him to appear so angry at this time.

With Liu Shijiu's character, how could he simply kill the person who spread the rumors with a knife!

Teng Yuzao guessed that Liu Shijiu should have made this call in front of all the Boxer leaders, as a reminder to him to give those leaders a reassurance.

However, this matter is a bit tricky. Teng Yuzhao is very clear that in history, the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion did not start with negotiations with the powers, but Cixi made this decision on her way to the west because she knew that she could not defeat the foreigners and began to prepare for negotiations.

It was not just the Boxer Rebellion. Once she arrived in Shanxi, she even killed many of the ministers who were in favor of war at the time, except Zai Yi.

Teng Yuzhao estimated that if Cixi and Guangxu successfully escaped from danger this time, they would probably be frightened out of their wits by the Allied Forces and would be more likely to issue this decree in advance.

If he denies it now, he will probably be slapped in the face soon, and he will leave a bad reputation for these Boxer leaders as untrustworthy.

You know, he is still thinking about the source of soldiers for the Boxers!
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(End of this chapter)