The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 300 Silver and Capture

You have to know that there are many martial arts masters among the Boxers. The slightest negligence may lead to big mistakes, and it will be too late to regret then.

Inside and outside the courtyard, Teng Yuzhao's personal guards were standing double duty.

Wei Jinghai and Li Xianze would naturally not be stopped or questioned when they arrived.

Entering the courtyard, Wei Jinghai walked in front and Li Xianze walked behind. The two of them went straight into an elegant study room which was also a reception room with an open door but closed windows covered with gauze.

This is the residence that Wei Jinghai chose for Teng Yuzhao. It is not only quiet, which is conducive to Teng Yuzhao's rest, but also not far from the operations room, making it convenient for Teng Yuzhao to travel.

After the two entered the reception room, they saw that Li Yaoting was already there. Teng Yuzhao was sitting on a chair, concentrating on flipping through a manuscript or document that was full of handwriting.

Seeing Wei Jinghai and Li Xianze come in, Teng Yuzhao closed the manuscript in his hand and asked them to sit down. Teng Yuzhao himself took the manuscript and walked to a desk beside him where there were four treasures of the study and a telephone.

He carefully placed the thick manuscript in his hand on the desk, and then carefully pressed it down with a paperweight.

Then Teng Yuzhao walked back to his seat, put away the smile on his face, and spoke to Wei Jinghai, Li Xianze and Li Yaoting.

"Time is running out. Please tell us about your respective preparations."

Li Xianze and Li Yaoting looked at each other and then turned their gazes to Wei Jinghai.

Although Li Xianze has been with Teng Yuzhao for a longer time, and is older, more experienced, and even closer to Teng Yuzhao than Wei Jinghai, he still gives face to Wei Jinghai, the deputy chief of staff, and at least on the surface, he still gives him enough respect.

Wei Jinghai nodded to Li Xianze, then turned to Teng Yuzao and said, "My situation is simpler. When I arrived at the Ministry of Revenue, Li Xietong had already sent people to take over the Ministry of Revenue. The several large warehouses in the yamen were intact, locked and sealed."

"The staff of the General Staff Office have checked and found that only two warehouses have silver. The other warehouses are empty."

"After our rough inventory, we found that there are a total of 3.2 million taels of silver in the warehouses. These taels of silver have not been moved yet. The security department will have to pack them into boxes."

Hearing that there were still more than three million taels of silver in the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse, Teng Yuzhao was both happy and angry.

He had already proposed the plan of hunting in the west to the court, and even Cixi had considered the need to leave the capital, but the court had not made any preparations for evacuating the capital.

If he had not entered the capital first, or even failed to stop the Allied Forces' attack, this huge amount of silver would probably have fallen into the hands of the Japanese, just as it happened in history.

Fortunately, he finally arrived in time, and such a large sum of silver would make his treasury even richer.

Wei Jinghai has now developed a strong immunity to silver. When talking about more than three million taels of silver, his expression was very calm, as if he was talking not about three million and two hundred thousand taels of silver, but three million and two hundred thousand bricks.

"I was originally worried about the ammunition boxes. We didn't bring many empty ammunition boxes. After this battle, each unit has many empty ammunition boxes. I should arrange for the staff office to notify each unit that all empty ammunition boxes must be sent to the headquarters baggage battalion."

"The reason we gave them is that they need to pack the ammunition and supplies we seized today. Now a large number of empty ammunition boxes are piled near the warehouse in the backyard." "The backyard has now been handed over to the security department. All money and property entering and leaving must pass through Bingbu Street in the back. That street is now under the control of the headquarters' direct reconnaissance post, and the entire street has been blocked."

"In this battle, we seized a large amount of valuables from the prisoners and the Japanese, American, British, and Russian soldiers we killed. The total amount was more than 188,000 US dollars, more than 40,000 British pounds, more than 150,000 Japanese yen, and the least was 6,000 rubles."

Wei Jinghai said bitterly, "In addition, we also confiscated more than 400 watches and pocket watches, and more than ten boxes of gold rings and gold and silver jewelry. There are many expensive jewelry in them. It is roughly estimated that the value is not less than one million."

"These things must have been snatched from us by the foreigners. Some of the jewelry even has blood stains on it..."

These foreign devils came all the way from Tianjin, and they committed a lot of murder and looting along the way. Especially in Tongzhou, the militiamen looted the entire city. According to people who fled from Tongzhou to the capital, the corpses of civilians were piled outside the East Gate of Tongzhou.

Teng Yuzao said grimly, "These foreign devils appear to be righteous on the surface, but in fact they are engaged in bandit activities such as murder, arson, and looting. Sooner or later, we will have to settle accounts with them."

Teng Yuzao knew that now was not the time to get angry, so he looked at Li Xiance and Li Yaoting.

Li Xiance looked at Li Yaoting and motioned Li Yaoting to speak first.

Li Yaoting took out a few pieces of paper covered with handwriting from his pocket, unfolded them in his hands, and spoke while looking at the words on the paper.

"According to the intelligence our security department has obtained, almost all the high-ranking officials in the capital have left the capital. Except for the ministers who followed the emperor and the empress dowager, who left the capital in a hurry and did not have time to take their families away, most of the other officials, big and small, fled the capital with their families."

"All government offices in the city are now empty, and the gates have been sealed, including the warehouse of the Ministry of Internal Affairs outside the Forbidden City."

"Almost all the big merchants, banks and money houses in the city have also left."

"However, according to our observations, due to time constraints and the large number of people who wanted to leave, most people, including many officials, could not find vehicles. Many people did not have time to transport all their belongings. It is estimated that they only took away a small amount of the most valuable property."

"The heavy things, such as silver and valuables, goods, etc. that they didn't have time to take away, were probably buried by them."

"Those high-ranking officials, merchants and their families left the capital, but they left behind servants and assistants to look after their residences, shops and warehouses."

"Among the officials and dignitaries, there was only one exception, and that was Prince Qing. According to the family of Prince Qing, a British flag had been prepared in the palace. They said that once the city was captured, they would put the flag on the gate, and the foreign devils would not harass the palace when they saw the British flag."

Teng Yuzao snorted. He knew that Yikuang was closest to the British. His personal safety would definitely be protected by the British, but the same could not be said for his property.

If Fan Guoliang had not died, Fan Guoliang and his men would first break into his house and take away the huge amount of wealth that Yikuang had worked so hard to amass.

After Li Yaoting finished speaking, he handed the papers covered with words in his hand to Teng Yuzhao.

The pieces of paper that Li Yaoting handed over not only marked the locations of the residences of these government offices, big merchants, wealthy people, officials, and powerful people, but also the key families who might have hidden large sums of money, as well as government offices and warehouses. These places were all marked with red pen.

(End of this chapter)