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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 562: New Year¡¯s Day Banquet

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    It is already New Year's Day, and the snow in Beijing has stopped, and the inside and outside are covered in white snow. For the people in Beijing, the good weather on New Year's Day in the second year of Tongzhi seems to symbolize good weather for the year, and  In the Fengsan Selfless Hall of the Old Summer Palace, the Manchu and Qing royal families were enjoying the New Year's Day banquet, but it was all gloomy and gloomy.  .  .

    Qu Yan is a small banquet, similar to what is usually called a "light banquet" today. The dishes are relatively simple and the actions are relatively casual.  This banquet is held every New Year's Day and the 15th day of the first lunar month, mostly in the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City and the Fengsan Selfless Hall in the Old Summer Palace.  More than ten days ago, the Empress Dowager Ci'an moved out of the Forbidden City on the pretext of recovering from illness and planned to live in the Old Summer Palace for a long time. Therefore, Xingzhen had no choice but to accommodate Ci'an and arrange all New Year's Day activities in the Old Summer Palace.

    The participants of the Qu Banquet are all members of the clan, that is, the princes, grandsons, etc. "appointed" by the emperor, as well as the kings, dukes, and Baylors of the nearby branches. The "gong" here refers to the elders in the clan.  Dishes are placed on high chairs, with two people per seat. After the customary rituals, they write poems and drink wine to celebrate the festival.  In addition to Qu Banquets, there are also courtier banquets for major ministers and banquets for foreign vassals.

    In addition to a series of activities such as banquets, sacrifices, ancestor worship, incense burning, stepping on the New Year's Eve, watching the New Year's Eve and other activities are naturally inevitable.  But the Taiping Army in the south didn't seem to care about New Year's Day, and still launched their so-called winter offensive fiercely. The Qing army suffered successive defeats, casting a shadow over the New Year's Day celebrations.

    The entire province of Guangxi has been completely lost more than 20 days ago. Since the elite Qing troops in Guangxi were completely destroyed in the battles of Guilin and Liuzhou, the remaining Qing troops in Guangxi did not put up much resistance.  Either surrender, or submit to the Taiping Army, and wait until Peng Yulin requests an order to bring the remaining troops in Guangxi under Yunnan's control.  He only received less than 10,000 Qing troops from Baise Hall, and the entire 110,000 Qing troops in Guangxi were almost completely wiped out.

    The Qing army in Guangxi did not slow down Chen Yucheng. On the contrary, the Tiandihui rebel army led by Zhu Hongying, who was entrenched in Yulin Prefecture, caused some trouble to the Taiping army.  The reason is very simple. Zhu Hongying did not agree to hand over the headquarters for reorganization. He proposed that the conditions for joining the Taiping Army were very simple, which was to maintain the independence and integrity of his own army.  This was naturally intolerable to the King of the West, so the Taiping Army had to spend a week dealing with Zhu Hongying's troops.

    Zhu Hongying, who had 30,000 soldiers and horses in hand, thought that she had enough strength to negotiate terms with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.  Within a week after the Taiping Army's ultimatum passed, his 30,000 troops suffered a devastating blow from the Taiping Army.  The Taiping Army, with the cooperation of He Goujian, another Guangxi rebel army, took action extremely quickly.  He Goujian and Zhu Hongying worked together to fight against the Qing army in Guangxi for several years.  Naturally, they knew him well, and even many of Zhu Hongying's generals were old acquaintances of He Goujian, so they used both military strikes and win-overs to divide him.  In the end, Zhu Hongying was betrayed by his subordinates and killed him.  All the remaining troops defected to the Taiping Army.

    Peng Yulin inherited a troublesome mess.  Du Wenxiu, who rebelled against the Qing Dynasty in Dali, officially spread the word to the world, accepted the command of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was appointed director of the Yunnan Military and Political Department, and was granted the title of Marquis of Pingnan.  Du Wenxiu mobilized 100,000 troops to attack eastward from Dali, with the goal of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province.  After Chen Yucheng captured Guangxi, he received support from the newly formed Fifth Army, so he ordered the First Army to be stationed in Guangxi to rest and recuperate, while the Fifth Army quickly moved westward.  In response to Du Wenxiu's offensive, Kunming was prepared to attack from both sides.

    The battle situation in northern Jiangsu and Huainan is also dire.  Here the Taiping Army does not seem to care about the gains and losses of a city or a place, they care more about annihilating the Qing army's effective strength.  After Lin Fengxiang had been dormant for many years, he took action and fought a big battle in Suzhou.

    At the beginning of the Battle of Suzhou, Lin Fengxiang surrounded Suzhou with one division of the First Army. There were only more than 10,000 Qing troops in the city, so naturally they did not dare to go out of the city to fight with the Taiping Army.  After asking for help, a large number of Qing troops from Xuzhou, Yingzhou, Haozhou, Henan, and Hebei came to help. With regiments from various places training their troops, there were almost 80,000 Qing troops gathered in Suzhou, including 10,000 elite new Qing troops from the Cheng'en Department.  .

    The battle lasted for more than two months, from the end of September to the end of the year. Lin Fengxiang used his troops to appear and disappear, always identifying the weak parts of the Qing army and concentrating superior forces to encircle and annihilate them.  The Second Army moved continuously to fight in Suzhou, Mengcheng, Huaibei and other places. During the movement, it annihilated several groups of troops coming to aid the Qing Dynasty. In the end, the Qing troops from all walks of life gathered together and did not dare to advance further.  Finally, they turned around and fought a decisive battle with the 10,000 elite Qing troops from Cheng'en's tribe who had rushed to Suzhou. After the first battle, the Qing army still used the old volley array. The result was naturally that the Taiping army had more flexible tactics and higher weapon range and accuracy.  The army was defeated, and finally three cavalry regiments of the Taiping Army attacked and destroyed the Qing army in Suzhou in one fell swoop.

    In the Battle of Suzhou, the Qing armies in Huaishang, Northern Jiangsu, and Henan were severely weakened. It was Seng Gelinqin who sent 30,000 Mongolian cavalry south to stabilize the front. After Suzhou was captured, Lin Fengxiang laid down a line of defense on the Qing army's Xuzhou line.  A wedge made the Qing army extremely uncomfortable.

      If the failure of the frontline war was only a blow to morale, the opening of the restricted areas and the negotiation of peace with foreigners were a painful experience for the Manchu clan.  The fertile wilderness outside the Pass is thousands of miles away, and it is close to the end of the Little Ice Age. Although the climate sometimes fluctuates, it is no longer as harsh as it was in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The climate outside the Pass has stabilized and is beginning to be suitable for farming.

    The Manchu clan elders and other nobles more or less allocate land outside the customs. Although the imperial court ordered their families to recruit domestic slaves or refugees to leave the customs to cultivate land, after the results were achieved, these people could be raised to join the flag, and  The imperial court also borrowed a lot of money from the eight Shanxi merchant families to pay for reclamation, and the loan would be repaid in installments with grains after the harvest, and the eight Shanxi merchant families could directly send people outside the customs to collect grain.

    Xingzhen¡¯s method indeed had many benefits, but she ignored the stubbornness of the conservative ideas of the Manchu era.  Since the decree was issued, clan elders from Ci'an have come to cry every day. After all, the reclamation fees have to be returned to the court. Once the reclamation fails or the harvest is lost, or because it is too far outside the customs, the clan elders cannot take care of it.  The domestic slaves were greedy for food because they were afraid of taking responsibility. They were even more afraid that once the domestic slaves settled on land outside the customs and the population multiplied, if they returned to the outside of the customs, they would not know who had the final say on those lands.  As for the excuses of feng shui, dragon veins, disturbing the ancestral tombs, etc., there are countless excuses. Ci'an moved to the Old Summer Palace to avoid them.

    The peace negotiations between the foreigners were done by the Sixth Army of the Japanese Army. Ever since Yi? became the foreman of the Minister of Military and Aircraft, he had become the first prince and minister in the DPRK. He launched a large-scale Westernization effort, and the clan members all called him a fake foreign devil, referred to as the Sixth Army of the Japanese Army.  It was just a matter of setting up Westernization. Negotiating peace with foreigners and preparing to open the northern ports as treaty ports touched the sore point of the conservative forces in the north. As a result, accusations, abuses, traitors and other curses became loud and clear for a while.

    It is strange to say that there were not one thousand but eight hundred memorials to impeach Prince Gong, but in the end they were as silent as a stone sinking into the sea. After inquiring about the news, the ministers learned that they had all been detained by the one from the west.  Everyone slowly woke up and realized that the one from the west was supporting Prince Gong, so everyone began to slowly target the one from the west.  It is a pity that the one in the west has the support of military generals such as Zeng Gelinqin and others, and the support of Prince Gong¡¯s party, Xi Houdang Guiliang, Weng Tonghe, Shen Zhaolin and others.  , Ruijian and other soldiers and horses were also controlled by this person, and Ci'an was not very pushy, so no one inside or outside the palace could compete with him, and he was as powerless as a fly shaking a tree.

    But people have one mouth and five minds. If you can't fight, you can have fun talking about it. Therefore, rumors about uncles and sisters-in-law controlling government affairs, about Sichen Sichen being a hen are commonplace, and what's more, there are vicious words such as uncles sleeping with sisters-in-law.  I hear it from time to time.

    Xingzhen naturally cannot remain indifferent to these devious tricks. The guards of Shang Yu¡¯s backup department are investigating everywhere. Once the person who spreads and spreads rumors is found, he will be imprisoned without any mercy.  But the result was not very good. The rumors were not suppressed. Instead, the man in the west was charged with an additional crime, that is, he was convicted for his words.

    Xingzhen couldn¡¯t help but sneer after learning about it. When did the Qing Dynasty not get punished for words?  Isn¡¯t this literal prison enough?  It¡¯s just that she went one step further this time, and she couldn¡¯t even talk about it!  But she also understood that these rumors were repeatedly suppressed, and behind them were the masterpieces of the conservative people among the clan elders. Although the guards in Shang Yu's reserve department could arrest people, they did not dare to touch those nobles. As the saying goes, a single move can affect the whole body.  , now is not the time to touch them.  So Xingzhen endured this for the time being, and the clan members did not do anything more outrageous except for using words to smear him. Both sides were waiting for their opponents to make mistakes.

    This banquet was held under such circumstances. Although the banquet maintained a happy appearance on the surface, there was an undercurrent surging behind the scenes.  Thanks to the oral peace negotiation in Dagu and the retreat of the foreign fleet to the south, Prince Gong Yi? could be said to be the most proud person at the banquet. He raised his glass and toasted frequently, which made him steal the show.

    Zai Ling, Yi Xiang and others were naturally unhappy. Sitting next to Zai Ling was the clan general and Prince Hui Mianyu. Seeing Yi?  He is so proud, if it weren't for the one in the west who supported him and left the late Emperor Daoguang aside, this kid would have been trapped by the lower sect's mansion."

    Mianyu was old and deep, and said noncommittally: "But how can the current crisis in the court be comparable to the previous one?"

    Zai Ling choked and said without giving up: "Look at the one in the west who also has a cheerful face. The one who flirted with the Japanese at this table has spread their scandal among the people."

    Mianyu's eyes turned cold and he said calmly: "You and I are ministers just like Prince Gong, so be careful with your words! How can you believe all the rumors in the market?"

    Zai Ling laughed dryly, and Yi Xiang, who was at the next table, came over and said, "You don't know, the folkHe has a nose and a face, you still don¡¯t know.  If this continues, I see, this man and woman have the final say in this court.  "

    Mianyu was the one who was exempted from kneeling by Xianfengqin except for the court ceremony. He was extremely loyal to the royal family. He said coldly: "I feel that the late emperor has entrusted him with important responsibilities. I will not be mistaken. Are you two eating?"  Drunk? Go back and rest early!" The two of them were bored and didn't dare to say anything else.  (To be continued)
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