He Shen fled with his family and supported confidants.
Although things happened in a hurry, he was still very proud of the progress so far. Of course, the entire escape plan would not be considered a success as long as they did not arrive at Anping Port. His first goal now is to go to Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou. His family, He Lin's family, and close friends are all there, waiting for him to sail before he arrives.
In addition, Ma Baishan has already set off with a few guards. He will go to Kunming and send a message to He Lin so that he can prepare in advance.
He Shen concluded that even if the princes and ministers in the capital noticed something was wrong, they would never dare to send troops out of the city tonight out of fear of Zhao Xin and the Beihai Navy. The men and horses of the Jianrui Camp took Qianlong, who was still half alive, back to the Forbidden City. And it will have to be tomorrow morning at least until the court confirms that the Beihai Navy's entry into the customs is just a farce directed by him. By then, he had already arrived in Tianjin by boat.
The fact was just as he expected. Even though Yongxuan, Wang Jie and Qinggui broke the rules and jointly issued an order to mobilize troops, the "Three Outer Battalions" who received the order did not dare to assemble their troops immediately. The reason was that the Prince Ding who was in charge of the seal was not there, and He Shen was not there. He was not there, and there were no arrows from the nine admirals, so none of them dared to make the decision. Despite the fact that military aircraft are extremely powerful in the eyes of outsiders, in fact everyone knows that they are just the emperor's mouthpiece.
Shortly after the messenger set off, Yongxuan, who was worried, contacted Prince Li Yongen and Prince Rui Chunying and asked them to lead five hundred knights to the Old Summer Palace to escort him. When the two princes learned about the situation of the "Outer Third Battalion", they decided to take risks and led their men to forcefully enter the Old Summer Palace with torches. After a lot of confusion, Qianlong who was in a coma and the eunuch in charge who was tied into rice dumplings were finally found in the Dongnuan Pavilion of Qingyan Palace in Kyushu.
The anxious Yong En called the imperial doctor on duty to diagnose Qianlong, administered acupuncture and medicine, and Qianlong finally woke up. But because he missed the best time for treatment, the eighty-three-year-old became speechless and soon fell into coma. To put it bluntly, it means damage to the language center of the brain leads to aphasia. Just when Yong En and Chunying were hesitant to report the truth to Qianlong, their subordinates came to report and found Prince Yi and Prince Ding. Also discovered with them was Hu Shijie, the eunuch who had delivered the edict.
When the four princes Heshuo met, the two princes who had been tied up for a day and a night gave a rough account of their experiences. Prince Li and Prince Rui broke out in cold sweats. When Prince Yi and Prince Ding learned that gunfire had been fired in the city, they were also shocked.
Yong Lang took a big gulp of water and said with lingering fear: "Thank you for coming, otherwise our uncle and nephew would die of thirst. This bastard He Shen won't even give him a drink of water!"
After complaining and drinking enough water, Prince Ding Mian'en, who had regained his composure, said, "I'm thinking that He Shen may have caused the North Sea pirates to enter the customs."
Prince Li Yongen comforted him: "Don't worry! The Ministry of War has sent people to Miyun. If it is true or not, there will be news tomorrow morning."
Mian En said bitterly: "We must catch He Shen, I must chop him alive!"
Prince Rui Chunying said: "The most important thing now is that you two rush to gather the soldiers and horses from the third battalion to escort the holy cavalry back to Luan. This garden is not a place to stay for a long time."
Yong Lang said in surprise: "Don't you have the command arrow? Why do you need the two of us to go?"
Chunying said sadly: "Forget it, the arrow can't be found. If it weren't for this, we wouldn't have made the trip."
Mian En said angrily: "Don't say it, He Shen must have done this too! I'm going now!"
The two princes in charge appeared, and the commanders of the third outer battalion no longer had any scruples. They beat drums and fired cannons to notify the battalion leaders to assemble. In an instant, countless torches lit up around the Old Summer Palace in the night, shining like daylight; nearly 30,000 soldiers and horses were divided into more than 20 teams, and the entire Old Summer Palace was surrounded from all directions.
Late at night, Qianlong's master, who was escorted by heavy troops, finally returned to the Forbidden City. At this time, troops gathered inside and outside the capital. Counting the mobilized bannermen in the city, the total number of troops inside and outside the city was nearly 70,000.
Although the emperor is back, he is unable to govern. People from the Imperial Hospital were summoned to the palace overnight. After diagnosis and pulse examination, they also prescribed a prescription. They only said that he needed to rest peacefully for three to five days and not be irritated anymore. As for when he would be able to speak, no one dared to guarantee.
Yongxuan knew very well that the imperial hospital's prescriptions were always inconsistent with their names and were among the "Top Ten Ridiculousnesses in the Capital". Under repeated questioning, several frightened imperial doctors could only kowtow, with blood oozing from their foreheads. . He was finally convinced that Qianlong's health was probably in danger, so he seemed to have to prepare early.
It was at this moment that Yijun Wang Yongxuan had countless thoughts rolling through his mind, like a raging fire, burning him so hard that he couldn't stop. However, perhaps because of his disability in his feet and his lack of popularity, he always had a low self-esteem, so his newly rising ambition soon died down.
Although the current situation is favorable to him, he himself also covets the throne of the emperor. However, the Beihai Navy is like a sharp sword hanging over his head, and the days he can stay in the Forbidden City are counted by the days. Yongxuan asked himself that he didn't have the ability of Kangxi and Yongzheng to turn the tide, and he didn't want to sit in that position and be tortured every day, and eventually become a subjugated king.
"Forget it! Since Old Fifteen is willing to take the blame, let him take the blame! With Huang Ama gone, the Qing Dynasty... alas!" Yongxuan, who walked out of the Qianqing Gate, sighed deeply and then looked up. Towards the dark night sky.
"Um?"
The time was approaching the end of the day, and there were countless stars in the sky. A star with bright red light quickly caught Yongxuan's attention. But he was surprised to find that the star that was supposed to move from bottom to top actually turned downward when it reached the middle position of the heart, as if it had reached the apex of a parabola.
"Yinghuo Shouxin! Heaven!" Yongxuan's heart suddenly thumped, and he felt palpitations. The starlight in the entire sky was like countless sharp swords, pressing down toward the Forbidden City and the Qianqing Palace. Yongxuan squatted on the ground in fear, holding her head and not daring to look any further.
You must know that in ancient Chinese astrology, the middle star of Antares represents the emperor and the palace; and Mars staying retrograde on Antares is the most sinister sign, indicating that the emperor is going to end his game and the world will change hands.
"Historical Records" says that the heart is the bright hall and the bright temple. And in the "Gan Shi Xing Jing" it is recorded: "(Fire) meets the Heart Star, and the plain linen clothes, both to the south and north, are death." In addition, it also indicates that "the ministers will change. to seek his master".
The key is that the above explanations all correspond to what happened in the capital yesterday and the current crumbling status quo of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. How can Yongxuan not be afraid?
Well, if Qianlong happened to be there, he would definitely kick this stupid son's ass. Nonsense Yinghuo Shouxin! The Frenchman Chiang Youren once introduced Copernicus's "heliocentric theory" to Qianlong, and specifically talked about the principle of "guarding one's heart while being deceived", and Qianlong believed deeply after hearing this.
It is said that the "Yinghuo Shou Xin" feared the emperors of ancient China the most. In fact, the reason is very simple. Because the Earth is closer to the sun than Mars, it orbits faster. When the fast-rotating Earth surpasses Mars in the outer circle, the trajectory of Mars seems to be retrograde when observed from the ground; as the distance between the two increases to a certain position, Mars' trajectory will return to "normal" .
Of course, the phenomenon of Mars retrograde will occur regularly, and the situation of "guarding the heart" will only occur when the trajectory of Mars is exactly at the fifth heart of Qinglong Qisu.
But it is a pity that the Jesuit priest Chiang Youren, who traveled thousands of miles to China, was proficient in astronomy, geography, and architecture, and designed the world-famous "Yuanmingyuan Flood Method", passed away twenty years ago. , and the next generation of the Manchu royal family were no longer interested in learning those "barbarian arts".
"My lord, what's wrong with you? I'll call you the imperial doctor."
The eunuch who was accompanying him with a lantern was startled when he saw this and asked hurriedly. The Ouchi guard who was on duty not far away saw that something was wrong and came over with a lantern.
"No, no need. I'm fine, help me up." Yongxuan stood up slowly with the help of the eunuch, leaning on the white marble railing, breathing heavily. The guard who came over saw his face turned pale and hurriedly ran to the check-in room to bring him a cup of hot tea and a cushion. After Yongxuan sat on the ground, drank hot water and rested for a while, she finally felt relieved.
"My king is fine." Yongxuan was about to take a step forward with a sullen face, but stopped again, took out two cash-on-demand banknotes from his sleeves, handed them to the guard and the eunuch respectively, and said in a deep voice: "Just now Don’t tell anyone what happened, otherwise you should be careful!”
"I don't dare!"
Yongxuan, who returned to the military aircraft, did not dare to tell anyone about the celestial phenomenon he had just seen. After urgent discussions with several iron hat kings who were guarding the room outside Longzong Gate, they unanimously decided that before Prince Jia returned to Beijing, In terms of military affairs, Prince Ding Mian'en and Ministers of Military Aircraft Wang Jie and Qing Gui were in charge. In terms of government affairs, Prince Yongxuan of Yijun and Prince Mian'en of Li were in charge. In order to prevent the incident, everyone decided to take advantage of the curfew in the city. Prince Ding Mian'en and Prince Yi Yonglang each led a thousand soldiers and horses to raid the He Mansion overnight and arrest their accomplices and torture them severely.
Following Qianlong back to the Forbidden City, there was also an urgent memorial sent by Shengjing General Shu Liang, which was the source of the trouble. But that night, everyone was focused on Qianlong's condition and the arrest of Heshen Yudang, and no one noticed its existence.
The city of Beijing was destined to be restless that night, and Dong Xinchen and his companions who were trapped in the city were even more anxious. Since the city gate was closed in the afternoon, the two of them learned that they could not leave the city, so they had no choice but to return to Yiwang Mansion. Later, they could not even get out of the gate because of the street cleaning.
The first reaction of Dong Xinchen and his companions was that Qianlong was dead, but there was another thing next. What was the gunshot outside Chongwen Gate? The companion from the Intelligence Bureau was familiar with various standard weapons of the North Korean Navy. He could tell from the sound of gunshots that it was the standard revolver of the North Korean Navy.
Could it be that our own people launched the attack outside the city? impossible! Dong Xinchen knew very well that his superiors had provided several batches of arms to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so it was normal for the Manchu Qing Dynasty to have standard revolvers. As for the people in Prince Yi's palace who said that the North Korean Navy would attack Miyun, that was even more untrue; for such a big event as the North Korean Navy's entry into the country, the Intelligence Bureau would have notified them in advance anyway.
What he didn't know was that the Northern Navy Intelligence Bureau, thousands of miles away, was also alarmed by the strange situation in the capital. Telegrams from the four intelligence stations were pouring in like snow.
The first person to send a telegram was the "Fan Gutang" located in Liulichang outside Xuanwumen, followed by the wine shop located at Qingfeng Gate outside Dongbianmen. You must know that the fire set by He Shen's men almost burned the entire flower market street to white ground; when the fire was at its strongest, half of the sky was dyed red and black smoke billowed.
If it was just a fire, it would be nothing. The key was that the city was under martial law and cannons were fired. Rumors spread in the outer city. Every household panicked and rushed to buy rice and noodles. They all said that the Northern Navy was coming.
Director Wang Changsheng received a report from his subordinates and felt that something was strange. Who is spreading rumors? What's the purpose?
At night, a telegram came from the drug store in Haidian, saying that soldiers and horses from the third battalion outside the Qing court were dispatched in large numbers. The lights in the Old Summer Palace were brightly lit and could be seen miles away.
At this time, Wang Changsheng felt that something was wrong. At present, the Eastern Front Force of the Northern Navy is about to launch an operation against the entire Liaodong, and Zhao Xin is also coming to the front line to take charge. In case something changed, he immediately sent a telegram to the Eastern Front Command.
Zhao Xin was also confused after seeing the telegram. He had heard that the Qing court had a system of "firing cannons to gather generals", but he didn't know exactly what happened. The problem is that he hasn't planned to enter the customs yet. What is the Manchu Qing going to do? He asked his staff to find the report of the forward reconnaissance team in the past week and read it again. There was nothing unusual!
After thinking for a while, he quickly gave up; the information was not smooth, and no amount of random thinking was in vain. He telegraphed to Wang Changsheng overnight that if there was any new situation in the capital, he should report to him as soon as possible.
Two days passed like this, and on the afternoon of the third day, the Intelligence Bureau sent a long telegram of 8,000 words, which included information that Li Qiucheng had heard from the palace and also learned from Ruan Yuan's mouth. At this point, Zhao Xin finally understood what had happened in the capital these days.
Good guy! This is a major event that has never happened since the founding of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing court has been turned upside down.
Zhao Xin read the contents of the telegram twice, still feeling unbelievable, thinking that He Zhongtang was quite capable, but he actually did such a trick! While he was thinking about it, Deng Fei came back from inspecting the front line. When he entered the room, he saw Zhao Xin thinking hard and said jokingly: "Haha, who are you planning to trick here?"
"How are the troops prepared?"
"Even the first-level mobilization meeting has been held, and the morale is high. The most asked question by the soldiers below is when they will enter the customs."
Zhao Xin pointed to the telegram on the table and said, "Look at this first."
"What happened?" Deng Fei asked casually, walked over and picked up the telegram. Unexpectedly, as soon as he read the first few lines, he couldn't help but said "Holy shit". After he read all the above content, he couldn't help but sigh: "It's unbelievable that a die-hard scoundrel turned into a traitor! By the way, what did you say when you went to see him years ago? Were you stimulated?"
"I didn't say anything. I just asked him to hand over the land deed, otherwise" Zhao Xin suddenly covered his forehead, and the expression on his face was clearly "Oh, buy it"!
Deng Fei couldn't help but laugh and said: "Let me just say, there is no one else but you who can make He Shen's soul severely damaged."
"Okay, maybe probably."
Zhao Xin had already thought a lot while Deng Fei was reading the telegram, so he asked: "Old Deng, if you were He Shen, where would you go?"
Deng Fei touched the stubble on his chin, thought for a moment and said, "I can't say. Hey, will he go to Yungui to join He Lin?"
"How to get there?" Zhao Xin walked to the map hanging on the wall, pointed at the capital and Kunming, and continued to ask: "The two places are five or six thousand miles apart. With a big family, whether you are taking the Yangtze River to Sichuan , or take the sea route to Guangxi, it is impossible not to reveal his whereabouts. Do you believe it? The Qing government must have sent six hundred miles to the governors of various places to pursue and intercept him. "
Deng Fei said: "Then what do you mean?"
Zhao Xin said firmly: "I don't think He Shen will let his family take such a big risk, otherwise there is no need for him to take everyone away. Unless He Lin can lead his army to Nanning Prefecture, Guangxi, or go north to conquer Xuzhou, After taking over Luzhou and Chongqing, it is still reasonable to go to the Yangtze River in this way. The problem is that if you do this, you are already rebelling. He is not that stupid."
"You mean?" Deng Fei stood up and walked to the map and looked up and down for a long time. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he asked, "Anping Port?"
"Yes! This is the fastest route for him to escape from the Manchu raid." Zhao Xin pointed to the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal on the map and said: "Get on the boat from Zhangjiawan, go out of Tongzhou into Tianjin Prefecture, and walk at the mouth of the Sancha River On the main stream of the Haihe River, go to Zhigu Pier to change boats and go out to sea. Hefu's steward Ma Bashi and Wang Ping have been to Anping Port many times, so they should be familiar with this route. "
Deng Fei looked at the map and said after a moment: "How to deal with him? He has coveted so much people's wealth, and we must not let him take him away!"
Zhao Xindao: "He Shen dared to do this. He must have planned it for more than a day or two. The cunning rabbit still has three holes. In terms of his ability to scheming people, you and I combined are no match for him."
"Haha, you are so skilled at driving tigers and devouring wolves now. Qianlong also had to hold his nose and swallow the bitter pill. Why are you so self-effacing?" Deng Fei finished teasing and asked curiously: "What's the matter, you still plan to go to Anping Port Will you meet him?"
"I don't have the time to ask the Intelligence Bureau to come forward."
Just the day after the two talked, the North Navy's summer offensive finally kicked off.
On July 11, 1794, it rained heavily. At six o'clock in the evening, Pan Xiucheng's troops stationed at Bultukumen dispatched two regiments, crossed the wicker wall, and launched an attack on Kaiyuan City. The Qing army was caught off guard. The defenders in the city did not expect that the Northern Navy would attack the city in the rain, and were so frightened that they lost their minds.
The Qing army's garrison in Kaiyuan only had 1,500 people, which was already double the original number. Facing the overwhelming cannonballs falling on the city wall, the Manchurian Zuoling and the Kaiyuan County Magistrate who served as guards looked ashen. Although the Beihai Navy adopted a strategy of surrounding three buildings and leaving the south side open, due to heavy rain, the water in the Yehe River surged and there was no way to escape. By nine o'clock in the evening, Kaiyuan County was captured.
That night, two battalions of the North Navy took advantage of the light rain and, under the leadership of the reconnaissance team, headed west along the north bank of the Yehe River and attacked Julanghe City on the right bank of the Juliu River. Early the next morning, another group took a large assault boat that had been prepared long ago, followed the Yehe River to the west, and then turned into the Juliu River to go south. Their target was Tieling on the south bank of the Liaohe River.
That is to say, on the same day, the Beihai Navy in Shandong mobilized three regiments of troops. Under the command of Sheng Haizhou, they also launched attacks on Huangxian, Zhaoyuan, and Laiyang. The defenders in all places surrendered. Kong Shaoan worked hard in Jiaodong for two years, punishing rape and eradicating evil and dividing fields, which won the hearts of the people. Therefore, when the people along the way learned about the arrival of the Northern Navy, they all put out incense tables and ate pots of pulp.
When urgent memorials from Shandong were flying to the capital like snowflakes, at noon on July 12, 1794, a Cantonese-style motor sailing ship from Beihai Town sailed into Anping Port and parked at the military berth.
Xu Dayong, the intelligence leader of Beihai Town who had been registered in the Manchu and Qing courts, was wearing a straight military uniform and a large-brimmed military hat, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and walked off the springboard with several of his subordinates. After exchanging salutes with the head of the local intelligence bureau who came to greet him, he asked: "How is the situation?"
The person in charge said: "They arrived three days ago. There were so many people that they reserved the two largest courtyards of the guest house, and many people lived on the boat. The meals were all ordered at the counter, and the waiter could only give them to Delivered to the entrance of the hospital. Everyone on the boat bought and cooked their own food, and some even went to a brothel run by Koreans, which was very noisy. The female family members basically didn't show up much, but the one who led a few men around every day .”
"Where has he been?"
The person in charge said: "The market, the warehouse, and the ship. We spend the most time in the warehouse."
"When they registered, did they say how many days they would stay?"
"I didn't say anything. There was an older butler-looking man who said they had to wait for someone."
"Haha, it seems they are waiting for me." Xu Da said to the men he brought without turning his head: "Let's go! Let's go meet the 'Lord of the Central Hall'."
(End of chapter)
