The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 320: Power and Checks and Balances

Although Wang Wenshao was well aware that Cixi, Ronglu and Zai Yi were determined to support Teng Yuzhao in the fight, he still said it with some reluctance.

"How can we lose the capital so easily? Besides, even if Teng Xingfu leaves the capital, where can he hide? Wherever he goes, the foreigners will chase him. Once he introduces war to other provinces, won't it lead to corruption in more places?"

Although Wang Wenshao did not say it explicitly, everyone had already understood his meaning. He still wanted the vanguard army to have a big fight with the foreigners in the capital. It was even possible that Wang Wenshao wanted the vanguard army to have a fierce battle with the foreigners in the capital. If the foreigners could be scared, he would not hesitate even if it meant sacrificing all the vanguard troops including Teng Yuzhao.

Even though Wang Wenshao did not necessarily want to wipe out the vanguard troops in the capital, it was true that he did not want Teng Yuzhao to lead the war elsewhere.

Even the imperial court believed that the capital could not be defended, and Cixi had fled with the emperor, but they still wanted the vanguard troops to hold on to the death. Wouldn't this mean that the entire vanguard army would be destroyed in the capital!
When the imperial court had placed almost all its hopes on Teng Xingfu, this old man was acting like this at this moment. Wasn't it possible that he was harboring evil intentions and wanted to kill Zai Yi?
Zai Yi was so angry that he was about to scold Wang Wenshao again, but Ronglu had already started talking with a smile.

"Lord Wang, Teng Xingfu will not bring the war to other provinces. At most, it will only affect Shanxi."

After saying this, Ronglu no longer paid attention to Wang Wenshao, but turned to Cixi and said.

"Empress Dowager, Teng Xingfu said in his memorial that he would move his camp office to Luzhou Prefecture, which means that at most he would retreat to the Taihang Mountains to deal with the foreigners, and would never retreat to other places to corrupt more places."

Cixi asked doubtfully, "Zhonghua means that you think Teng Xingfu can stop the foreigners in these mountains?"

Ronglu nodded and said, "Empress Dowager, when we went to war with the foreigners this time, I also looked for people who graduated from the Beiyang Naval Academy in the Wuwei Army and learned about the foreigners' tactics. When they attacked each other, they rarely fought in mountainous areas. They just held on to the towns. Once the major cities fell, the war was over."

"Not only do the foreigners have little experience in fighting in mountainous areas, but the roads in the Taihang Mountains are rugged and difficult to travel among the vast mountains. Not to mention the difficulty in transporting military supplies, even large armies have difficulty passing through."

"Once Teng Xingfu leads his troops to retreat into the mountains, even if the foreigners have a large number of troops, they will not be able to surround Teng Xingfu. Instead, it will give Teng Xingfu, who is good at fighting clever battles, an opportunity. Then he can deal with the foreigners calmly."

"But what if the foreigners don't chase into the mountains and just occupy Zhili? " Wang Wenshao couldn't help but say.

Ronglu shook his head and said, "No, as long as the Queen Mother is in Shanxi, the foreigners will definitely come. If they don't come, they will negotiate peace with us."

"As for them occupying Zhili, that is unlikely. Their country is too far away from our Qing Dynasty, and they can't afford to waste time with us."

"It is the Russians and the Japanese who want to stay in Zhili, but the other powers probably won't agree. From the three countries' intervention to return Liaodong to last month, Britain, France and other countries forced the Japanese to withdraw from Fujian, it can be seen that the foreigners' mind is that if they can't get it themselves, they don't want to see others get it."

"So, they won't stay in Zhili forever."

After hearing what Zai Yi and Rong Lu said, Cixi felt much better. "Okay! I will approve everything you just said."

Ronglu said to Cixi with some embarrassment, "Empress Dowager, please understand. When the Wuwei Front Army was divided, Shoushan assigned the Lutai troops to Song Zhusan and Ma Jingshan. This time, I took in the defeated Lutai troops in Baoding. Song Zhusan and Ma Jingshan also asked me for them, but I didn't ask the Empress Dowager. I haven't agreed to them yet. Now."

Cixi sighed and said, "In the Song Dynasty, Lu Yuanzhong wrote in his poem Huanzhu Cave, 'The Five Ridges look like the east, and all the other mountains are small.' Before Teng Xingfu and his vanguard army, I still respected Song Zhusan, Ma Jingshan and their troops. But now, with Teng Xingfu and his vanguard army, other armies are not worth mentioning." "Take the matter of protecting the emperor for example. If Teng Xingfu had not sent troops to rescue the emperor in time, I and the emperor would probably have been prisoners of the foreigners by now."

"Therefore, it would be better to let Teng Xingfu train these defeated Lutai troops."

Cixi's meaning was very clear. These people should be handed over to people who can fight. If they are handed over to Song Qing and Ma Yukun, they will still not be able to fight against the foreigners and will not be of any use.

Cixi's words left Ronglu speechless.

He was the one who organized the Wuwei Army. Now that the situation was so dire, he couldn't deny the responsibility and could only shut his mouth in embarrassment.

Seeing Ronglu's strangeness, Cixi said, "Zhonghua, don't blame yourself. Now it seems that if we use foreign guns and cannons to fight, we need to use people who are familiar with foreign tactics to command. It is not enough to rely on those veterans."

"Teng Xingfu, for example, not only graduated from Beiyang Wubei Academy, but also studied abroad in Germany. He made special use of students from Beiyang Wubei Academy and Wuwei Front Army School in the army. Officers of all ranks were familiar with foreign tactics, so they naturally knew both themselves and the enemy when fighting."

"In this regard, Yuan Weiting is exactly the same as Teng Xingfu. Although Yuan Weiting himself does not understand Western warfare, he has already seen it clearly. In the Wuwei Right Army, he has always relied on the Beiyang Military Academy and people who have studied abroad."

Cixi seemed to be unsatisfied, and suddenly stopped talking about Yuan Shikai and his Wuwei Right Army, and continued to speak to Ronglu.

"The Wuwei Army was basically drawn from various armies. Even if you wanted to do the same as Teng Xingfu, it would be difficult to do so. At least these veterans would have nowhere to be placed, and the emperor would never agree. All this cannot be blamed on you."

"Lü Mengzheng once said, 'Time is the key, fate is the key,' this is what he meant. Not to mention you, even Li Zhongtang had to go against his original intention of establishing the Beiyang Military Academy and had no way to deal with these veterans!"

"It seems that in the future, our Qing Dynasty will still have to vigorously establish such new military schools and form new armies such as the Vanguard Army and the Wuwei Right Army."

Cixi had mentioned Yuan Shikai and the Wuwei Right Army twice, which made Zai Yi secretly alert. Zai Yi did understand this kind of political tactics, but he was not as skilled as Cixi in it.

Zai Yi understood that Cixi was worried that Teng Yuzhao would become too powerful in the future and was preparing to use the technique of checks and balances.

Zai Yi secretly sighed in his heart. He never thought that at this time of national crisis, Yuan Shikai, who was watching from the sidelines in Shandong, would actually benefit from Teng Yuzhao.

Cixi looked at Ronglu and said, "Hasn't Li Zhongtang already selected some people from the Beiyang Wubei Academy and prepared to send them to Teng Xingfu's army?"

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(End of this chapter)