"What?"

Emperor Xianfeng was stunned again.

"You said that Zao Wuji led the top scholar army to defeat the coalition forces of many countries, including Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Austro-Hungary, and a musket team of more than 5,000 people, was killed by Zao Wuji and captured more than 2,000?"

He had just given an order to Senggelinqin to kill Zhao Wuji Emperor Xianfeng, who had just left the capital for three days, received this news that surprised him.

The shock was because Zhao Wuji and his top scholar were so capable, and the joy was because this was the biggest victory for the Qing Dynasty when the Qing Dynasty faced foreign powers.

"Yes, Your Majesty, as the battle report said, Zhao Wuji's top scholar army... only killed and injured more than 500 people."

Emperor Xianfeng took a deep breath after hearing this.

Although five hundred casualties and injuries were exchanged for more than one thousand casualties, it seemed that the proportion of people who replaced their heads when facing the Qing army of the previous powerful forces was still much worse than that of the Qing government. However, the Qing government lacked everything, but there was no shortage of people.

If he could trade in this ratio, Emperor Xianfeng felt that he could defeat the whole world.

"not good!"

Emperor Xianfeng was suddenly shocked because he suddenly realized that the top scholar army was so capable of fighting had nothing to do with the top scholar army, but was directly related to Zhao Wuji. The configuration of 3,000 musketeers is not the only one in the top scholar camp. Whether it is the Eight Banner Army or the Green Camp, many military towns can also gather 3,000 musketeers.

Then why can’t others beat the barbarians? Only Zhao Wuji can win?

"Issuing an order, Immediately issue an order and send someone to catch up with Senggelinqin." Emperor Xianfeng panicked and said, "Don't kill Zhao Wuji, and you are not allowed to seize Zhao Wuji's military power. I want to reward Zhao Wuji."

Emperor Xianfeng before did not think that Zhao Wuji could win, after all, in his eyes, Songjiang Prefecture did not have many foreign troops.

But what is the concept of a number of five thousand?

Emperor Xianfeng clearly remembered that after the First Opium War, there were only more than 17,000 British soldiers participating in the war. Of course, he didn't know that it was the First Opium War.

Zhao Wuji is more capable than he imagined, which means that Zhao Wuji is really likely to help him completely suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and defeat the great powers.

In this case, what does Zhao Wuji have to provoke the great powers?

I will definitely not dare to provoke you when I can't win. If I know that I can win, I will be the lord of the nineteenth century. How could I have no temper?

It is worth mentioning that during the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China decades later, Cixi also declared war directly on 11 powerful countries, including the Eight-Nation Alliance. Although she was finally beaten... but at least she dared to declare war.

However, the people sent by Emperor Xianfeng to stop Senggelinqin, but I don’t know if they didn’t catch up or after they caught up, Senggelinqin refused to obey the order. In short, Senggelinqin led his troops to Songjiang Prefecture.

His purpose is to kill Zhao Wuji.

Not only for him to kill Zhao Wuji himself, but also for the top scholar army that he can fight, but also for the interests of the Manchu and Mongolian tribes in the Qing court.

"Han people? Hehe..."

Senggelinqin was riding a horse and was waiting in the direction of Yangzhou outside Songjiang Prefecture.

After he arrived at Songjiang Prefecture, he had a secret discussion with Masali, Wenhan and others. After that, when Qian Jiang led people to investigate foreign goods in China and was preparing to collect lijin, he was directly arrested by the planned foreign mercenaries.

Then, foreign merchants sent people to the garrison of the top scholar army to deliver letters, demanding that Zhao Wuji negotiate.

Senggelinqin also acted as if I had just arrived in Songjiang Mansion, and these things had nothing to do with me. I am from Zhao Wuji's perspective, and I am preparing to join forces to negotiate with foreign merchants. I arranged for someone to contact Zhao Wuji.

"When will it be the turn of the Han people to be so domineering?"

Before he could wait, Senggelinqin, who had only brought dozens of horses, saw Zhao Wuji, who had also brought only dozens of horses.

But Senggelinqin also knew that this was just the person Zhao Wuji brought to join him, and the large army of the top scholar was still behind.

"Prince."

Wu Yan arrived in front of Senggelinqin, rode his horse and bowed and shouted.

When Senggelinqin heard this, she looked at Wu Yan's expression again and felt that she was back to the time when the two first met.

If life was just like the first meeting.

Hu Luan sighed in his heart, and it was clear that the two of them could no longer return to the Senggelinqin, who had been the same as before. After laughing a few times, he said, "Wuji, no, General Zhao, congratulations, the top scholar's defeat of the Western barbarian coalition was a great achievement that had not been seen in two hundred years. I have already reported to Your Majesty, and I expect there will be a reward soon."

Wu Yan also sneered in his heart. He already knew that Senggelinqin was going to kill him, and even he knew exactly how Senggelinqin was going to kill him.

But he did not turn against him on the spot, but said, "Thank you, the prince. Since the prince has arrived, then go back to the camp. We will wait for the barbarians in the camp to negotiate."

Senggelinqin was not nervous because he felt that Zhao Wuji didn't know that he was here to kill Zhao Wuji.

Moreover, he was an imperial envoy and a county prince after all, so Zhao Wuji had no reason to kill him at this time.

The two sides slapped their horses and headed towards Yangzhou again. Before they could walk far, they reached the camp of the top scholar army.

Senggelinqin looked and asked, and she felt even more confident.

Because the martial arts master who had gone to Songjiang Prefecture with Wu Yan had returned to the south bank of Jiangnan and stationed in Danyang County, which was guarding the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Only the Zhuangyuan Camp and the Jiangbei Division and the Pingnan Division were left in this camp.

In Senggelinqin's view, Jiangbei Division and Pingnan Division were both members of Qishan before, and they were equivalent to his people, and they became the people under Zhao Wuji's short-term men. Whether they were generals or ordinary soldiers, they would definitely have no sense of belonging to Zhao Wuji.

As for the top scholar camp, Wu Yan couldn’t go anywhere, so he would take the top scholar camp with him, right?

"Western barbarians are really ambitions and have no faith."

Senggelinqin cursed in front of Wu Yan, giving people the impression that he was helping Wu Yan. After scolding, Senggelinqin said again: "But we should save Qian Jiang and the people he brought, we should save them. If we don't save them, we will not be able to convince the public."

Wu Yan smiled and said, "It should be so. However, after the person is rescued, I will definitely take revenge. I only collected more than 700,000 taels of ransom and li gold, which is not enough for me to fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."

More than 700,000 taels...

Senggelinqin was a little jealous when she heard this number. If she really wanted to talk about it, his net worth was more than this number.

But how many years has he accumulated?

However, Zhao Wuji only took about ten days to get so much money.

The most important thing is, how many soldiers can this money support?

The Qing Dynasty's salary was actually decided during the Shunzhi period. Take the regular army green camp as an example. The soldiers with horses had 2 taels per month, the infantry had 1 taels per month, and the guards had 1 taels per month. However, by this time, the salary was not enough to spend. How could the Qing court's soldiers have combat effectiveness when they could not even afford to support themselves?

Many people also wrote letters to ask for increased salary, but the Qing court could not even pay this at this time, so how could they be willing to add it?

The Hunan Army's ability to succeed is also directly related to the relatively high salary of the Hunan Army. Ordinary infantry has more than 4 taels of salary per month, so if you have money, you can naturally fight.

"According to the example..." Senggelinqin said: "More than 700,000 taels should be enough for your 40,000 top scholar army, and the salary for the past year is nothing?"

Wu Yan shook his head and said, "Of course it's not enough. The ordinary soldiers of my top scholar army paid 5 taels of silver every month."

Five taels?

Senggelinqin was shocked.

As mentioned earlier, the annual salary of the first-rank official in the court at this time was only 180 taels of silver, and the monthly salary was actually only 15 taels. Even if the official officials not only had salary, various open subsidies, and various filial piety, an ordinary soldier had 5 taels of silver every month, which made Senggelinqin feel incredible.

Suddenly, Senggelinqin felt that it seemed to be quite difficult for him to use the imperial edict to seize Zhao Wuji's military power.

But out of a long-standing inherent cognition, Senggelinqin still did not dispel his ideas.

"General Zhao is indeed extremely generous. No wonder the top scholar's army is invincible."

Hearing Zhao Wuji's words, Wu Yan smiled and did not respond.

The top scholar army was not actually recognized by the court. It was entirely his own organization. Logically speaking, even if he was invincible, Senggelinqin could not just mention the top scholar army, but he did not mention his random adaptation.

Senggelinqin praised it again, trying to paralyze Wu Yan's defense, and then said: "British Minister Wen Han, American Minister Mashali and others are about to lead troops to negotiate with us. Although the name is negotiation and no war can be started without authorization, the Western barbarians have never been polite, so General Zhao still needs to be prepared."

Wu Yan naturally cooperated with Senggelinqin and said: "Of course, I will divide the top camp and form a siege. If the barbarians dare to make any changes, I will let them go without a return."

Senggelinqin was secretly happy and didn't think there was anything wrong with Zhao Wuji's approach.

Although there are musketeers in the Heping South Division of the Jiangbei Division, the number is actually not large. Many of them are using old-fashioned muskets, while foreign troops are musketeers, all with flintlock rifles.

It is reasonable to divide the top scholar's camp to deal with it.

"Okay, then let's have a good talk with them."

Senggelinqin continued to talk to Wu Yan, dragging Wu Yan under various names, and the confidant staff and others he brought had also begun to secretly contact Lei Yicheng, Shengbao and other generals.

With the imperial decree in hand, and with the high power of Senggelinqin, he was a real and extremely powerful minister. Therefore, Lei Yicheng, Shengbao and others agreed on the spot and promised to take away Zhao Wuji's military power.

Not long after, the foreign coalition forces from Songjiang Prefecture arrived five miles away from the Zhuangyuan Camp, and the number of people was still 5,000. Those who had died before were privately supplemented by foreign merchants and consular envoys from various countries.

The muskets that they had been disarmed were also supplemented.

In the rear, there were nearly 15,000 coalition forces, who were ready to attack Songjiang Prefecture at any time on the fleet along the coast of Songjiang Prefecture.

It was precisely this 15,000 regular troops that gave these defeated mercenaries confidence.

The troops on both sides set up formations on the plains, and the nearest place was only 200 meters. Although it exceeded the effective range of the musket, it did not require running too far to start the battle directly.

Wu Yan took Senggelinqin and a group of confidant generals to wait in front of the camp.

Although his own people were arrested, Wu Yan had many people and was on his own territory, so the coalition forces sent people to Wu Yan to negotiate in front of the formation.

"Abolish the likin system." Wen Han recalled the insult he suffered when he saw Zhao Wuji last time, and said proudly: "Your people, each person has a ransom of 100 taels... gold!"

Qian Jiang and the people stayed in Songjiang Mansion were not many, only 600 people. Even so, they would have to pay a ransom of 1.2 million taels of silver if they calculated.

Don’t say that Wu Yan doesn’t have so much money, he won’t give it to him even if he has it.

"Is there any?" Wu Yan asked expressionlessly: "Speak it all together."

Wen Han shouted: "Otherwise, we will go to war at the same time as our 11 countries, and we will have 30,000 troops in advance, and we will be able to prepare 200,000 troops within two months. Within half a year, we will be able to enter the capital and destroy your Qing Dynasty."

This sentence is not for Wu Yan to listen to, but for those around Wu Yan.

As expected by Wen Han, Senggelinqin and others, when they heard these words, the generals around Wu Yan's faces became a little panicked.
To be continued...