The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 327 Wu Ziyu's Reward
The Pingyang that Ronglu mentioned is the Linfen area in later generations.

At this time, Linfen was still under the jurisdiction of Pingyang Prefecture. It was not until more than 20 years later during the Republic of China period that the prefecture was changed into a circuit and a county was established.

As for Shanxi merchants, there is no need to elaborate on them.

Shanxi merchants spanned the Ming and Qing dynasties and flourished for 500 years. They mainly engaged in businesses such as salt and banks, and were particularly famous for their banks. Today, Shanxi merchants' banks are almost everywhere in the country.

After a long silence, Cixi nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it according to Zhonghua's method."

"Also, since we have decided to temporarily stay in Shanxi, we can't just hold Teng Xingfu's students and his personal guards hostage any longer."

Cixi looked at Zai Yi and said, "Didn't Teng Xingfu write in a memorial that in order to quickly integrate those new recruits, he has begun to expand the army and intends to establish a guard association based on his guard battalion?"

Zai Yi bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, Teng Xingfu said so in his memorial."

"Teng Xingfu also said that there was a candidate for the position of the commander of the Imperial Guards, but since the Queen Mother had already given Wu Ziyu the title of the titular general, he didn't want to leave the position vacant, so he requested to appoint Wu Ziyu as the commander of the Imperial Guards."

"Since Wu Ziyu has been accompanying the emperor, the Queen Mother has not allowed him to return, so the Military Affairs Council has not dared to approve Teng Xingfu's military reorganization plan."

She promoted Wu Ziyu, the hero who saved the emperor, and had the promotion immediately implemented by Teng Yuzhao, which made Cixi very satisfied.

Cixi nodded and said with a smile, "Teng Xingfu is very sensible and he did a good job. Let Wu Ziyu take Teng Xingfu's personal guards back, and you say hello to Teng Xingfu again. His battalion of guards will stay with me for the time being."

Cixi hesitated for a moment, then said to Ronglu, "Zhonghua, Teng Xingfu's position as the governor-general of Zhili has not yet been officially announced, so you are still the governor-general of Zhili. You are Teng Xingfu's direct superior. Go meet Wu Ziyu and praise him."

As Cixi spoke, she put down the bronze pestle in her hand, picked up a jade ruyi from the table and handed it to Ronglu, then reached out and took off a emerald green jade bracelet from her wrist and handed it over.

Although the jade ruyi was also a royal item and was very valuable, it was only worth a few thousand taels of silver. But the bracelet that Cixi took off was extraordinary.

Cixi loved jadeite when it came to jewelry, and she particularly liked the color green.

This jade bracelet was Cixi's favorite. Not only was the whole bracelet finely crafted, the entire bracelet was emerald green in color and crystal clear. The green inside was even more rich and lush. It was the finest imperial green among jadeites. It is no exaggeration to say that it is priceless.

But now, why did Cixi take off the bracelet and give it to Ronglu?
Zai Yi's heart suddenly sank, he already understood what Cixi was going to do.

Cixi looked at Ronglu who was surprised and said, "Zhonghua, tell Wu Ziyu that the great merit of saving the emperor is beyond description. If it weren't for him, Wu Ziyu, even if I and the emperor didn't die at the hands of the foreigners, we would have been abducted by them. It was inevitable that the Qing Dynasty would be coerced by foreigners. He has made great contributions to the Qing Dynasty, and I will never forget this."

"These two things are my favorites. I will give them to him as a reward. The bracelet is for his future wife. I hope that after he returns to the Vanguard Army, he will work hard, fight bravely, and make great contributions to the court. I and the emperor will definitely reward him generously."

Zai Yi knew that Cixi was rewarding Wu Peifu for his great contribution in saving the emperor, but in fact she was trying to win him over. However, he had no other choice. Even if he wanted to win Wu Peifu over, he had nothing to show for it. Except for some of his good things that he brought with him and some banknotes, he had almost thrown away all the rest in the capital. After being looted by the two traitors Liu Zhigang and Zhou Zhan, he didn't know how much was left.

Zai Yi secretly made up his mind that he must use his position as the chief minister of the Grand Council to win over Teng Xingfu.

Five days later, night.

In the dark wilderness surrounding the capital, in the east, south, west and north, and around the villages large and small where the Allied forces were stationed, there were "crackling" sounds of fierce gunfire and loud artillery explosions.

This is the vanguard army harassing the coalition camp, and this situation has been going on for more than half a month.

During the past half month, gunfire could be heard as soon as it got dark every day. Initially, only the coalition's forward outposts and patrols were attacked. After losing a large number of personnel, the coalition now dared not send out sentries at night and only set up outposts and guard positions a few hundred meters around the camp.

Even so, every night, there were still sentry posts and guard positions that were constantly attacked by small units of the vanguard army. Units with less than a company of people were often killed silently by the enemy on the patrol road or in the position.

Although the coalition forces had forced the civilians to harvest all the crops near their positions and villages in order to clear the firing range and prevent the vanguard troops from approaching their positions under the cover of sorghum and corn fields, they still could not stop them from approaching under the cover of darkness.

When the coalition forces discovered that those who were harassing them were small units of the vanguard, they initially sent troops out of the camp to fight back. However, after being ambushed several times by the vanguard and inflicting heavy casualties, they took the initiative to withdraw and quickly disappeared into the darkness without waiting for the large forces behind them to surround them.

If a large force is dispatched, it will be impossible to find a small force of hundreds of people in the dark night, and it will also be killed by sudden gunshots or even sudden artillery fire in the dark.

What is most troubling for the coalition forces is that this will prevent the entire army from getting a good rest.

Therefore, the coalition forces have recently stopped sending troops to fight back against this kind of night harassment. Instead, they just hide in camps and positions, fighting back with their rifles and heavy machine guns. When they are desperate, they even use artillery to fire crazily and aimlessly into the darkness.

However, the coalition forces' step-by-step retreat did not result in the vanguard army's harassment troops to restrain in the slightest.

On the contrary, they became more and more aggressive. Initially, they only used guns and grenades to attack their positions and camps, but now they have developed to dragging small-caliber artillery from time to time to launch surprise shelling on their camps.

The coalition forces also set traps, but after suffering a few minor losses, the small units of the vanguard became more cunning, and their harassment became more and more professional, so that the traps they set almost always failed.

Even a Russian ambush unit ran headlong into the ambush circle set up for them by the vanguard army and an entire battalion was wiped out in one go.

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(End of this chapter)