In the first few days of the siege, Chen Yucheng also used a lot of artillery. After three days, Chen Yucheng's artillery rarely launched large-scale attacks. It was still necessary to fire a few cannons from time to time. He couldn't let Li Hongzhang defend the city so comfortably. However, using more than a dozen cannons to bombard the city consumed too much energy, and the Taiping army couldn't bear it.
The main force of Li Hongzhang's Luo Army came from the Huai army and was quite familiar with artillery battles. Their level was higher than Chen Yucheng's troops. The other party didn't fire, and Li Hongzhang immediately calmed down. He waited for the Liberation Army's reinforcements all day long at the East City Gate.
On August 19th, the reinforcements finally came. A cavalry company of the Liberation Army's vanguard appeared outside the East City Gate. Li Hongzhang personally went to greet them. The cavalry company commander and the instructor looked suspiciously at the open East City Gate and the group of Qing Army soldiers in Huai army uniforms led by Li Hongzhang outside the East City Gate. In the past, when they saw the Qing Army, they would immediately fight. Even if they couldn't kill the prisoners, they were still outnumbered at that time. At this time, a cavalry company facing a surrendered army dozens of times its size felt wrong.
However, everyone could only think about it. The cavalry company's main task was not to deal with Li Hongzhang. The troops passed through the city. Not long after, the Luo Army's flag on the city wall fell down, and a Liberation Army's flag fluttered in the wind on the West City Gate. As soon as the city gate opened, the Liberation Army cavalry troops marched out.
The Taiping army didn't attack the city for the time being. The mounted scouts informed Chen Yucheng of the latest changes. Chen Yucheng felt extremely unhappy after hearing it. He could understand that Li Hongzhang had surrendered to the Liberation Army. Even if Li Hongzhang surrendered to the Taiping army, he would still die. However, seeing that Luoyang, which was almost in his hands, had become a cooked duck, one could imagine the sullenness in his heart.
"King Ying! We can't let Li Hongzhang go! "His subordinates suggested.
Chen Yucheng also spent a lot of effort to control his emotions. He said, "The Liberation Army on the other side has come out. Let's go and meet them first and see if Li Hongzhang is behind this."
As soon as they met, Chen Yucheng knew that Li Hongzhang was not behind this. The dozens of cavalrymen on the opposite side were all riding on rare tall horses. Their military uniforms, sabers, and rifles were all on their backs. If Li Hongzhang could gather such a cavalry unit, he would definitely not be forced to hide in the city like he was now.
After the conversation, Chen Yucheng understood the requirements of the Liberation Army. Since Li Hongzhang had surrendered to the Liberation Army, the Taiping army should return to Shaanxi.
As soon as this request was made, Chen Yucheng's subordinates started cursing him. "Li Hongzhang's men killed people from King Ying's Mansion. Do you think we'll leave just because you say so?"
"If you want us to leave, hand over Li Hongzhang!"
"Hand over Li Hongzhang and then talk about letting us leave!"
Chen Yucheng had actually decided to retreat, but he did not stop his subordinates from shouting. Everyone in King Ying's Mansion had been killed. Although his family members were stationed in King Ying's Mansion in Tianjing City's Chang 'an as hostages for Hong Xiuquan, many people in King Ying's Mansion had followed him for a long time. However, many people in the Ying King's Mansion had followed him for a long time. If he could not take revenge, Chen Yucheng would have a thorn in his heart.
The cavalry company commander was not angry. Between Li Hongzhang and the Taiping army, the Liberation Army had a better impression of the Taiping army. The company commander said, "You can't attack Luoyang anymore. If you have any ideas, wait for our commander to come and talk. How about this? "
The Liberation Army did not immediately turn hostile, so the generals of the Taiping army also took a step back. They lifted the siege on Luoyang and set up camp in the west to guard against possible surprise attacks.
There was no surprise attack, but the commander and the political commissar came. The two sides talked at the agreed place, and Chen Yucheng received a condition that he could hardly believe. It was the White Hats who killed everyone in King Ying's Mansion in Luoyang. The Liberation Army agreed to let the Taiping army take action against the White Hats, including killing their families. However, the Han troops under Li Hongzhang could not be touched.
Chen Yucheng and several of the main generals who participated in the meeting looked at the representative of the Liberation Army and finally could not help but ask, "Why are you doing this?" They did not believe that the Liberation Army would be so kind. There must be a plan of the Liberation Army.
"King Ying, let me ask you a question. Do you think you are a Han or a person who believes in God first?" The political commissar said with a smile.
King Ying Chen Yucheng did not believe in God at all, so a trace of displeasure flashed across his beautiful face. Then, he said angrily, "Of course I'm a Han first!"
The political commissar said seriously, "The most important thing for us in the Liberation Army to distinguish between the enemy and ourselves is whether or not we recognize ourselves as Han. We are all from Guangxi. The local people in Guangxi are Zhuang, Yao, Miao, and Li. If you ask them whether they want to be Han or other people, they will definitely say that they want to be Han. As long as they want to live a good life, they are one of our own. It's one thing to have a conflict. We, the local people of Guangxi, will kill each other when we meet. However, some people, at most, will say that they believe in XXX, but they are not one of our own. If you want to take revenge on them, we will support you. We are all Chinese, we are all Chinese, but there is only one Chinese in the new China! "
Chen Yucheng had not received the modern national education of the Liberation Army, so he was not very clear about the last few sentences. But he understood two things very clearly. The Liberation Army accepted most people, but the Liberation Army would not accept some people. From this point of view, the vast majority of people in the Taiping Rebellion belonged to the people that the Liberation Army could accept. Although he was quite nervous, Chen Yucheng also agreed with the conditions put forward by the Liberation Army.
Li Hongzhang was even simpler. He could even abandon his former boss, so he naturally had no feelings for some of his subordinates who were purely used. Therefore, the fate of some people was decided.
As a genuine second-grade Jinshi, Li Hongzhang had a better understanding of the Liberation Army's ideas, or rather, Vézé's ideas. Vézé could accept internal disputes and different ideas. However, Vézé could never accept anyone who put other ideas above the idea of "I'm a Chinese first". Whoever put other ideas above the idea of "I'm a Chinese first", Vézé would not let them go.
After understanding this idea, Li Hongzhang felt extremely lucky. Too many previous things could finally be connected to a conclusion. Originally, in Li Hongzhang's view, Vézé's propaganda for Manchu Qing was purely a kind of propaganda to defeat Manchu Qing, but now it seemed that it was just a targeted elaboration of the ideas that Vézé insisted on. A future emperor had such a strong theoretical insistence, which made Li Hongzhang fall into deep thought.
Manchu Qing's court did not know that his "third-class Duke" had completely abandoned Manchu Qing. Of course, Manchu Qing asked Li Hongzhang to send troops from Luoyang to the east to attack the Liberation Army north of the Yellow River, with the purpose of sending Li Hongzhang to die.
On August 22nd, Ceng Guofan's Xiang Army was actually less than a hundred miles away from Beijing. According to the secret envoy who ran back to report, Ceng Guofan's Xiang Army did not try to fight the Liberation Army, but retreated to the capital after a short rest in Hebei. Prince Gong Yi was very unhappy after hearing this. After hearing this, he was very unhappy. He felt that Ceng Guofan's retreat without a fight was really inexcusable.
However, Ci An commented, "If Ceng Guofan's army is wiped out, I'm afraid that the Liberation Army will fight all the way to Beijing. What's in it for us? Since he has arrived, let him be stationed in the northwest of the capital. "
The northwest of Beijing was the direction to Chengde. Seeing that Ci An was completely ready to go to Chengde, Prince Gong Yi could only listen to Ci An's arrangement. Prince Gong Yi could only obey Ci An's arrangement.
Although Ceng Guofan retreated quickly, the Liberation Army's marching speed was not slow. However, seeing that Ceng Guofan showed signs of retreating to Beijing to participate in the defense, the mixed army also felt a little headache. At this time, the best strategy was naturally to annihilate Ceng Guofan and the other local armed forces of Manchu Qing north of the Yellow River, and then gather forces to attack Beijing, which had no war experience. Once the Xiang Army, which had actual combat experience, joined forces with the Eight Banners in the capital, they would encounter a big problem in defense. After all, the mixed army only had 20,000 people. This army was more than enough to harass and poke around Beijing, but it was completely insufficient to really attack Beijing.
The comrades of the mixed army had all studied at the Sixth Military Academy in Nanjing. Everyone knew that Nanjing had the largest city wall system in China. Beijing was slightly worse than Nanjing. After seeing Nanjing, everyone knew how difficult it was to occupy such a large city with 20,000 people. It was even more difficult to wipe out the enemy in Beijing in one fell swoop.
Therefore, the troops temporarily stopped. While they used carrier pigeons to send the news, they looked forward to the follow-up troops coming up as soon as possible. After the troops exceeded 50,000, they could almost carry out the combat method of besieging Beijing.
Thanks to the mixed communication system of the Liberation Army, Vézé learned of the situation only half a day later than Lei Hu in Kaifeng. Vézé had an impression of the fall of the Manchu Qing Kingdom. The members of this bandit group were indeed born thieves, and their perception of danger was far higher than that of ordinary people. In that moment where one wrong step would mean death, they were more willing than anyone else to soften their stance. Xianfeng fled the capital, Cixi and Guangxu fled the capital, and this group of people had never cared about Beijing.
Therefore, Vézé hurriedly ordered Lei Hu to speed up the speed of the march to Beijing and do his best to block the possibility of Manchu Qing Kingdom escaping. After the efforts of the communication system, Lei Hu's first military order reached the mixed army six days later. On September 6th, the mixed army rushed to the city of Beijing for two days in a row. However, two days ago, on September 4th, the two empresses of Manchu Qing Kingdom, the young emperor, Prince Gong, and other core members had already rushed to Chengde. Wen Xiang led the 58,000 Eight Banners Army and Ceng Guofan's 30,000-odd Xiang Army escorted the core members to Chengde.
At this time, the mixed army did not find out this information. They only sealed the city gates of Beijing and waited for the follow-up troops to arrive.
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