The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 303 News about Wu Ziyu
Teng Yuzhao walked quickly to the desk, reached out to pick up the phone, and Wei Jinghai's hurried but excited voice came from the receiver.

"Marshal, Wu Ziyu has sent someone back!"

"Who's back?"

Suddenly, when he heard Wei Jinghai mention Wu Peifu's name, Teng Yuzhao thought that Wu Peifu had returned. This made Teng Yuzhao unable to believe his ears and he asked subconsciously.

Perhaps it was because of the halo of the name Wu Peifu, Teng Yuzao cared about Wu Peifu much more than Xu Ting. Even Zai Yi, the court helper whom he placed great hopes on, Teng Yuzao did not think too much about.

"Marshal, Wu Ziyu sent someone back to report that he is safe."

Wei Jinghai made it clear again, and finally Teng Yuzhao understood that it was not Wu Peifu who came back, but Wu Peifu who sent someone back.

Although Teng Yuzhao felt somewhat disappointed, he knew that Wu Peifu was safe now. He was also able to learn from the visitor about the specific battle situation of the Western Hunting Team on the way today, as well as the extent of the losses suffered by the Western Hunting Team.

It is always good to know the exact situation of both Cixi and Guangxu.

"Okay! I'll be there right away!"

Teng Yuzhao put down the phone and simply tidied up the things on the desk. He opened the window so that the guards in the yard could see what was going on inside the room. Then he turned around, picked up his hat from the coat rack, put it on, and quickly walked out of the yard.

The reason why Teng Yuzhao wanted to open the window was because he did not have a safe at the moment. By opening the window, the guards in the yard could see clearly what was happening inside the room.

You know, Li Yaoting's report is on the desk. There are many things in this report that cannot be known to others.

Teng Yuzao knew that he had now reached the point where he not only needed a safe, he also urgently needed a confidential secretary. There would be more and more things that he would need to keep confidential, and there were many things that could not be remembered by memory alone, and there would be many things that required proof.

In a room to the right of the operations room, Teng Yuzhao met a squad leader of the special guard squadron who followed Wu Peifu and Xu Ting to protect Zai Yi.

The squad leader still had a bandage on his head, and his face had obviously been wiped with a wet towel, but it was not wiped carefully, and there was still a black bloodstain on his cheek.

After Teng Yuzao's repeated requests, the squad leader reluctantly sat down on the chair opposite Teng Yuzao. It was just a sitting down in the sense that his butt just sat on the edge of the chair.

Teng Yuzao was helpless, but he did not continue to ask the squad leader to sit down. He knew that even if he forcefully ordered the squad leader to sit down, the squad leader would not feel any better and might even suffer more.

This is the social reality. After all, people are a hierarchical group, especially in this era.

According to what the squad leader said, Wu Peifu and Xu Ting, with the special guard squadron, escorted Zai Yi all the way. They did not rush to Deshengmen to catch up with Cixi's hunting party. Instead, they went directly north after passing Xizhimen, taking a shortcut in an attempt to catch up with Cixi and her entourage as soon as possible.

However, they heard gunshots south of a town called Sujiatuo and discovered that foreign cavalry were exchanging fire with the Wuwei Army led by Song Qing, Ma Yukun, Dong Fuxiang and others.

Fortunately, since Cixi and Guangxu were right in front of them, Song Qing and Ma Yukun did not dare to retreat on their own. Otherwise, once Cixi and Guangxu were lost, no matter who came to the throne, they would be killed first. They had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead their troops to fight desperately in an attempt to stop the pursuers.

Most of their escort troops had been dispersed by the foreign cavalry and fled to the surrounding mountains. It was completely wishful thinking for them to organize a large force to fight the foreign cavalry in an orderly manner.

Song Qing, Ma Yukun, Dong Fuxiang and others had to lead the troops around them to fight desperately, but they were unable to gain a foothold under the impact of the foreign cavalry and could only retreat to a few small hills to stop the enemy.

The weapons and equipment of the Wuwei Left Army under their command were much better than those of Dong Fuxiang's rear army. They still had a few Maxim rifles in their hands. With these Maxim rifles, they finally blocked the Allied cavalry that was chasing them along the mountain road.

During this period of time, Cixi and her entourage fled quickly to Yangfang in the northwest under the protection of the Shenjiying, Hushenying and other imperial guards.

However, the foreigners were all cavalry. Although they were blocked by Song Qing and others, some of them exchanged fire with the Wuwei Army who blocked the road, while the other part rode their horses and took a detour to continue chasing Cixi and her entourage.

Although Zai Yi was terribly frightened, he still urged Wu Peifu to take a shortcut and rush to rescue the emperor.

Fortunately, among the Goshaha who were guarding Zai Yi, there was a local who was familiar with the road. He took them through a shortcut and finally caught up with Cixi and others twenty miles southeast of Yangfang.

Wu Peifu, Zai Yi and others arrived just in time. A group of nearly a thousand Japanese cavalrymen who had chased after them had already killed the Shenjiying and Hushenying units that were guarding Cixi, and were heading straight for the ordinary carriages that were guarded by a group of terrified ministers on horseback and eunuchs of high status.

Although Cixi did not dare to ride in the imperial sedan chair, let alone the more luxurious carriages and sedan chairs in order not to attract attention, and only found a few carriages for her, Guangxu, the empress, and concubines to ride in, there were only a few lonely vehicles in the large fleeing team, and it was impossible not to attract the attention of the pursuing Japanese cavalry.

In order to seize the great credit of capturing the Empress Dowager and the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, these Japanese cavalrymen ignored the Qing troops from the Shenjiying and Hushenying who were running all over the mountains and plains, and the ministers who were fleeing in all directions, and scrambled to ride their horses to chase the carriages.

How could a carriage outrun the cavalry? Seeing the Japanese cavalry getting closer and closer, Li Lianying, who was still relatively sober, had no choice but to suggest to Cixi that they abandon the carriage and go up the mountain.

Cixi, who was already frightened out of her wits, had no choice but to abandon the vehicle and flee to a hill on the side of the road with Guangxu and the empress, supported by a group of inner court guards and eunuchs.

A team of more than 400 Japanese cavalrymen, who were in the front, followed closely and killed the few soldiers of the Shenjinying Camp who were still trying to stop them. They rushed up the hills and even reached the sides of Cixi and Guangxu.

At the critical moment, Wu Peifu arrived in time and led his troops to charge forward, thus saving Cixi and Guangxu. Wu Peifu even personally killed two Japanese cavalrymen who had rushed to Cixi right in front of Cixi and Guangxu.

Later, more foreign cavalrymen caught up with them. The Special Guard Squadron, led by Wu Peifu and Xu Ting, formed an array and used volleys to block the foreign cavalrymen and rushed up the hill.

Although officers and soldiers of the Special Guard Squadron were repeatedly shot by the cavalrymen who were chasing them on horseback, and many of them fell down, they still resolutely protected Cixi and Guangxu behind them, and fought desperately. Finally, they held out until the arrival of Liu Yuzhi's First Mixed Brigade from Yangfang to support them. Only then did they rescue Cixi and Guangxu, and eliminate most of the thousands of foreign cavalrymen who were chasing them, forcing the remaining Allied cavalry to retreat in a panic.

In this battle, not only did the Special Guard Squadron suffer heavy casualties, almost everyone was injured, even Wu Peifu and Xu Ting were injured. It is said that Wu Peifu was injured in front of Guangxu and Cixi.

This time, the coalition cavalry's pursuit caused heavy casualties to the large group of people hunting in the west.

The Wuwei Left Army and Wuwei Rear Army led by Song Qing, Ma Yukun and Dong Fuxiang, who escorted Cixi on her hunt, suffered heavy casualties. The Shenji Battalion collapsed at the first blow and was killed by the cavalry. Only one in ten survived. More than a dozen ministers who accompanied the emperor also died. Originally, Wu Peifu was going to lead the special guard squadron back immediately after saving Cixi and Emperor Guangxu.

This battle must have completely frightened Cixi. After witnessing the tenacious fighting power of the Special Guard Squadron, Cixi not only immediately rewarded Wu Peifu, Xu Ting, and Liu Yuzhi, but also insisted that Wu Peifu lead the Special Guard Squadron to accompany her to protect her.

Now Liu Yuzhi has led his troops to escort Cixi and others to Yulinbao. Cixi insisted that Wu Peifu and the special guard squadron stay by her side to escort them north.

In order not to worry Teng Yuzhao, Wu Peifu sent the squad leader with a group of people to take a detour to report the news.

Although they had already concluded that Cixi and Guangxu had not fallen into the hands of the Allied Forces, they were finally relieved when they heard with their own ears that Cixi and Guangxu were still alive and safe, and Wu Peifu and Xu Ting had only suffered minor injuries.

With Liu Yuzhi around, the safety of Cixi and others would no longer be a problem. What's more, the coalition forces outside the city had just suffered a great defeat and did not dare to send troops to pursue them.

Teng Yuzhao inquired carefully and learned that Wu Peifu was injured in his left arm, which was cut by the saber of the Japanese cavalry during the hand-to-hand combat.

Xu Ting was grazed by a stray bullet when he was leading the special guard squadron to use volley fire to block the Allied cavalry who were trying to climb up the hill.

Xu Ting was bleeding a lot, but his injury was not serious. The first aid kit distributed by the vanguard army played a big role.

In the first aid kit, the hemostatic powder made according to the formula provided by Teng Yuzao had a strong hemostatic and anti-inflammatory effect. After applying it, the wound on Xu Ting's head stopped bleeding quickly.

The special guard squadron was to follow Teng Yuzhao. In principle, wherever Teng Yuzhao was, the special guard squadron would be there. Their barracks were inside the Ministry of Households.

After arranging for the squad leader who reported the news to return to the barracks to rest, Teng Yuzhao went to the operations room to ask Wei Jinghai about the movements of the coalition forces outside the city and the situation of expelling the Boxers from the inner city.

As there were constant reports of communications soldiers from various units coming to report on the battle situation, Wei Jinghai did not dare to leave the operations room for a moment. While listening to and summarizing the situations of various units, he also gave orders to each unit to coordinate and cooperate in operations at any time.

The coalition forces outside the city have begun to send people to collect the bodies, but the foreign devils have hired a large number of civilians outside the city.

When people like Liu Zhigang and Zhou Zhan, who were robbing in the city, saw Li Xiance's men coming, they did not fight to the death, but just took the stolen things and ran away.

Therefore, the operations of Li Xianze's troops were very smooth. In many places, no matter how many people there were on both sides, even if there was only one squad of vanguard troops and the other side had dozens of people, as long as a volley of gunfire passed, the other side would definitely turn around and run away.

Many times, they didn't even care about the silver and valuables they had robbed, and just left them behind and ran away. The soldiers basically collected the silver and valuables while pulling the net forward to drive these people away along the way.

As for the collected silver and valuables, the officers and soldiers were unable to find the owners. After asking for instructions, they have collected them and are transporting them back to the command headquarters of Li Xianze of the Second Mixed Brigade.

Since there were still more than a dozen busy staff officers in the operations room, Wei Jinghai did not tell anyone about the situation of Li Xianze's second group of people.

However, although Wei Jinghai did not say it, Teng Yuzhao could see from the happy look on Wei Jinghai's face that the progress of those 300 people should be very good.

Teng Yuzhao did not stay in the operations room. He left immediately after inquiring about the situation. However, he did not return to his residence to rest immediately. Instead, he took two guards to the backyard warehouse area of ​​the Ministry of Households.

In front of the moon gate in the backyard which was closely guarded by the security department, Teng Yuzao left two guards behind and walked into the backyard alone.

In the backyard, Li Yaoting and more than 60 people from his security department were busy and sweating inside and outside several large warehouses. Some of them were stacking silver neatly into ammunition boxes in the warehouses, then nailing them shut and sealing them.

Others classified gold and silver jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings and packed them into ammunition boxes or sturdy large wooden boxes.

At the heavily guarded back door, tightly covered carriages continued to drive into the backyard, and then carried down boxes of silver and boxes full of valuables.

The silver and valuables in these boxes should have been brought back from the powerful and wealthy in Beijing by those people under Li Xianze who dressed up as Boxers.

Seeing Teng Yuzhao coming to the backyard, the people from the security department stopped what they were doing and saluted Teng Yuzhao, and Li Yaoting hurried over.

"Marshal, the people I sent to assist Li Xietong just now came back with the vehicle transporting things and reported that Liu Zhigang, Zhou Zhan and others seemed to have planned this robbery in advance."

Some people who have infiltrated the Boxer Rebellion would like to take advantage of the chaos to loot and then withdraw from the capital once it falls. This is not impossible. After all, there are all kinds of birds in the forest.

Historically, there were records of this in foreigners' accounts, but at the time Teng Yuzhao believed that this was probably foreigners deliberately making up stories in an attempt to cover up their crimes of murder and looting.

However, judging from the fact that after the Allied Forces entered the city, they launched a large-scale hunt for the Boxers who should have already withdrawn from the city, it is not impossible that some people wanted to take advantage of the situation and do some unprofitable activities.

Li Yaoting had no idea what Teng Yuzao was thinking, but continued to report.

"Although they are divided into dozens of groups, their goals seem to be very clear. They all go straight to the mansions of the rich and powerful. Moreover, the information they have is very accurate, almost the same as what we have."

Li Yaoting's statement surprised Teng Yuzao a little. At least Liu Zhigang and Zhou Zhan might have had this idea a long time ago.

However, the situation reported by Li Yaoting afterwards attracted Teng Yuzao's great attention.

"General, Zhou Zhan and Liu Zhigang each led a group of people and went directly to the residence of Prince Qing and Prince Duan respectively."

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(End of this chapter)