Master Yuan, start!

Instead, he suggested distributing guns to all the people in the city so that they could help defend the city.

In order to resolve the stalemate, Yan Jingming used the reputation of being a righteous man, and no one could openly refute him, no matter how afraid they were of death.

In addition, the situation was not that urgent, so neither Shiduo nor YiX or Yilie had any intention of escaping.

So, under Yan Jingming's insistence, the military ministers temporarily reached a consensus on defending the city and decided to send Ronglu to the east of the capital to prepare for defense.

But no one saw that after Ronglu left the city, a eunuch followed him and called Ronglu back to the Forbidden City.

Ling Ronglu did not feel anything unusual after leaving the city. Instead, he ordered the Jiashen Left and Central Armies to intensify the construction of defensive fortifications.

At the same time, according to Yan Jingming's idea, the old matchlock guns and flintlock rifles in the warehouse were distributed to the people in the city. After giving each person a small amount of ammunition, they were driven one by one to the outer city canal defense line.

However, the French did not give Ronglu enough time to prepare.

In less than a day, the trenches of the canal defense line were dug, and the rest of the fortifications had not yet been completed.

The spy reported that he had discovered traces of the French.

It turned out that the French had no intention of attacking Langfang at all, and only wanted to capture the emperor. At the suggestion of the French Consul Du Silan, they rested in Tianjin for one night and then headed directly for Beijing.

Because they had looted a lot of horses in Tianjin, the French army's marching speed further accelerated. Song Qing in Langfang City was still eagerly waiting for the French army to arrive and preparing to set fire.

Courbet had already led his army straight to the outskirts of Beijing.

Although the hot weather caused many soldiers to fall behind along the way, when they saw the Beijing city wall in the distance, Courbet excitedly drew his sword.

"Soldiers, the Qing capital is before us! Let us storm the city and capture their emperor alive!"

Amidst the fierce explosions, the Qing troops under Beijing City held their positions under the fire. Ronglu pressed his body back and forth in the trenches, shouting as he ran:

"I am Ronglu, the commander of the Nine Gates. Today, we are all brothers defending the city. Brothers, the Empress Dowager and His Majesty are waiting for our victory report in the Forbidden City!

If we hold it, we will be heroes of the Qing Dynasty, and everyone will be promoted and become rich. If we can't hold it, the city will be destroyed, everyone will die, and our wives and daughters will all become playthings of foreigners!

Yuan Shikai, who pacified Korea, is leading his troops here. If we hold on, we can attack the French from both inside and outside. Hold on!"

After a passionate speech, Ronglu withdrew from the front line. He didn't know whether Yuan Shikai would come or not, but he had more important tasks to do.

He gradually faded out of the crowd and asked a lieutenant general of the left army to help command. Ronglu led hundreds of soldiers and quietly moved towards the Forbidden City.

The French army launched wave after wave of offensives, and the lives of the Qing soldiers defending the city were lost one by one. When it came to defending their homes, the Jiashen Central Army, which was mainly composed of bannermen, instead inspired fighting spirit and organized troops to repel the French attacks several times.

When there were not enough people, they forced nine able-bodied men out of the city to defend it. Fortunately, there were zero people to defend the city, and the people cooperated with them. Although there were heavy casualties for a while, they were able to hold on.

The fierce battle lasted until the early morning, until the ammunition in their hands was exhausted and the blades of their swords were bent. The Qing soldiers defending the city just fired their guns numbly and charged with their bayonets that were still sharp.

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Courbet was so furious that he simply gave up the reserve troops and sent all his troops forward, vowing to take this line of defense in the next wave of offensive.

There were many bodies left behind in the position, mostly Qing soldiers, with a few French as well. The blue uniforms were stained with blood and the shape of the uniforms was no longer clear.

Seeing his own cannons go silent one by one and the artillery positions being taken out one by one by the French, Jia Zhuang, who had earlier fought with Kang Youwei and others in the tavern with Du Liu, clenched his gun tightly.

He joined the Jiashen Army just to serve as a soldier and get food, but he never expected that one day he would sacrifice his life for his country.

"Du Liu, please protect Master Jia, or I'll come down and settle the score with you if he dies!"

When the remaining Qing soldiers in the trenches were about to stand up again and fight to the death, they suddenly saw dozens of flames flashing in the distant eastern sky, and the French offensive was also halted.

At this time, the Qing soldiers on the city wall shouted loudly: "Reinforcements, it is Lord Yuan's reinforcements that are coming!"

In an instant, hope ignited in the eyes of the Qing soldiers, whether they had laid down their weapons and were waiting to die, or were still trying to shoot, or were numb and exhausted from fighting.

Our people are here!

Behind the French army, tongues of fire burst out and roared towards the French.

In order to march quickly, the French left behind a lot of baggage and only carried some ammunition and horses.

In order to capture the city, they were forced to attack along the Qing army's defense line, and in the darkness of the night they did not notice Yuan Shikai's Jiashen Right Army behind them.

Yuan Xiangcheng deliberately fired his cannons at the compact French army group.

Facing the city wall, the French army was surrounded by Qing soldiers defending the city in front and Yuan Shikai's Jiashen Right Army in the back, so they could only attack from both sides.

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Because of the moat on both sides, the land area was very narrow, only a few dozen meters. Yuan Shikai arranged three Maxim machine guns on each wing.

"Da da da da da da!"

A single shot blocked the way, and thousands of French troops on each wing were blocked.

In this chaotic situation, Besbei, the leader of the team, could not contact Shangguan Courba, so he made up his mind, shouted to enter the city, and led everyone to attack the Qing army defending the city despite the counterattack of the Qing army in the city.

The Qing troops defending the city were already exhausted and unable to stop the French attack. They could only watch as the French broke through Guangqumen and a group of people filed in and hid in Beijing.

Yuan Shikai never imagined that the French would attack Beijing right under his nose. He felt terrible and wondered whether Cixi and the emperor in the city could escape.

But due to the formation, he could only clear out the remaining French troops in front of him first.

Just as he was leading his troops to execute the French and Japanese who were running around, Ming Ye in the distance was shouting out a piece of great news:

"Chief Instructor, Master Yuan! We have captured the French general, the French commander-in-chief Courbet!!!"

Chapter 58 The chaos gradually subsides

When Courbet was brought before Yuan Xiangcheng, Yuan Xiangcheng had just sent Duan Qirui, Sheng Fei and others to lead infantry and grenadier battalions into the city to pursue.

When Yuan Shikai was suppressing the rebellion in Seoul, he had already considered the possibility of future street fighting, so he set up a grenadier battalion specifically for street fighting, which together with the cavalry, artillery, and infantry became the four pillars of the Jiashen Right Army.

The cavalry and artillery were still cleaning up the battlefield outside the city.

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After being attacked from both sides, the French became like headless flies, running around in all directions. After all, they were still a capitalist army, and their strength was limited, not as strong as the steel army of later generations.

The remaining French troops gathered into small groups and tried to fight back or break out. However, as time went on, sporadic French troops were constantly besieged and killed.

Until the first French soldier raised his gun high with white cloth fluttering at the muzzle, more and more remaining French soldiers began to follow suit.

"General Courbet, I'm sorry to meet you under such circumstances." Yuan Xiangcheng took off his special military cap, spoke something in English, and bowed slightly to Courbet who was brought in front of him.

Yuan Xiangcheng did not speak French and could only greet him in simple English. Who knew that Courbet could not understand English very well either.

Fortunately, in addition to some followers, Courbet was also captured with a man who was obviously of oriental appearance. When Courbet heard Yuan Xiangcheng's greeting, he turned around and nodded to the translator Hong beside him, indicating that he should translate.

"Sir Yuan, General Courba said he was careless in being captured. If he were given another chance, he would definitely not choose to march quickly in the middle of summer to attack the capital of a strange country."

Yuan Xiangcheng grinned, took out a cowhide water bag from his waist and drank from it. "Ha, it's good that General Courba can recognize his own mistakes, but God will not give him a second chance."

"General Courba, would you like some water?" Yuan Xiangcheng handed the water bag to Courba, but he turned his head away.

"I drink, I drink!" Hong, the translator beside Courbet, was not so courageous. He had been thirsty for most of the day, so he took the water bag and drank it all in one gulp.

The French suffered three defeats at the gates of Beijing. The first was that they ignored reality and forced their troops deep into the enemy's hinterland, and their supplies were completely insufficient. If they had not looted Tianjin and obtained British weapons, the French army would have lacked heavy firepower when they reached Beijing.

But this is still the most important thing. The important thing is that in the hot weather of the East Asian continent in August, the French rushed all the way from Dagu to Tianjin. After winning the blocking battle, they only took a hasty rest and then marched quickly to Beijing.

It is nearly 1885 kilometers from Dagu to Beijing. In , the French did not have the Beijing-Tianjin Railway to take, so they had to rely on foot. It is hard not to have accidents when maintaining high-intensity forced marches for several consecutive days.

A large number of soldiers fell behind due to dehydration, heat, and acclimatization in the scorching weather.

Even the French troops who managed to keep up with the team were in far worse condition than when they first got off the ship.

But having reached this point, it was obviously impossible for the arrogant Courbet to give up his plan of raiding the capital and withdraw his troops to make long-term plans.

The second reason was that too many French soldiers were left to guard Taiwan and Vietnam, and instead many mercenaries from Algeria, European countries, Vietnam, and later Japan were drawn into the army.

Most people do not speak the same language and have not undergone long-term training and coordination. One unqualified soldier can often undermine the results of a battle brought about by several excellent soldiers.

Thirdly, they did not anticipate the semi-modernized reinforcements of Yuan Shikai. If there were no reinforcements, or if the reinforcements were at the level of local militia, the French army would still have a great chance of winning.

But the combat effectiveness of Yuan Shikai's army was far from comparable to that of the militia troops in the feudal era.

Some soldiers of the Jiashen Right Army had a strong sense of honor for their country and family. In addition, for some soldiers who had not yet awakened their national consciousness, he would not only preach big principles but also impress them with benefits. After landing, Yuan Shikai announced that each person would be rewarded with 5 taels of silver, and if they fought bravely, he would not be stingy with the reward.

With almost a complete set of military training methods taught by German instructors, coupled with Yuan Shikai's generous support of weapons and equipment and money, the Jiashen Right Army can be considered a first-class army in China today.

Compared with the French Expeditionary Force, the military tactics of the Jiashen Right Army were not backward, and their weapons and equipment had their own advantages and disadvantages, but under the leadership of the political commanders and political commissars, the morale of the Jiashen Right Army was high, and their physical strength was far superior to that of the French army.

With multiple advantages, it is not surprising that the Jiashen Right Army was able to defeat the French army, which was like a spent force.

"General Courba, persuade the others to surrender. I will guarantee their lives. I will also propose to His Majesty the Emperor that we contact your government again to discuss how to end this war."

Yuan Xiangcheng had already thought of the future plan in his mind, and did not want to waste the soldiers of the Jiashen Right Army in this meaningless siege, so he made suggestions to Courbet.

Although Courbet didn't want to bother with Yuan Shikai, he still knew the reality and knew that preserving the French's manpower was the most important thing, so he cooperated with Yuan Shikai to call for surrender.

The French troops outside the city were easy to deal with, but those entering Beijing were a problem.

The gates of Beijing were lost, the French and some Japanese entered the city, and Yuan Shikai's Jiashen Right Army followed suit.

Guangqumen is connected to the southern part of Beijing, which is the area of ​​the Temple of Heaven and Mishikou in later generations. Nowadays, there are many temples and government offices near Guangqumen.

The Qing troops defending here were almost immediately defeated and driven back to the north city. Chongwenmen was located inside Beijing, and most of the troops were pulled to the east to defend Dongbianmen and Guangqumen.

The temporary garrison was in no hurry to close the gate, and the chaotic soldiers broke in. Some French troops followed and broke into Chongwenmen, striding towards the Forbidden City.

Yan Jingming had earlier submitted a memorial proposing that every citizen of Beijing be given a gun to strengthen the city's defenses. This order was not implemented for long, with only a few thousand old-fashioned muskets distributed to some residents of the southern part of the city.

However, these thousands of muskets caused even greater chaos after the French army entered the city. The French broke into the city from the south, cleared the walls and demolished the houses along the way, causing the people in the south city to take out their muskets and shoot at the French.

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But how could untrained civilians be a match for an organized army? Instead, this aroused the anger of some French and Japanese, who indiscriminately opened fire on innocent civilians.

At this moment, the city's hooligans and gangsters also took advantage of the situation and took advantage of the situation. With guns picked up from nowhere, they robbed houses all over the street.

As the French army, rebel soldiers, armed civilians, and ruffians fought each other, the southeastern part of the capital became a living hell.

The situation was barely brought under control until Duan Qirui and Sheng Fei led the Jiashen Right Army to suppress the rebellion and defeated the French troops who had not had time to advance north.

But this also meant that they wasted a lot of time. It was not until several hours later that Duan and Sheng led the team across Chongwenmen to eliminate the French.

When Yuan Xiangcheng arrived with his troops, the six ministries and nine government offices south of Chang'an Street had been completely destroyed by the chaotic soldiers. Fortunately, he got a message that Cixi, Guangxu and a group of military ministers had fled west in a hurry when Guangqumen was broken.

Chapter 59 Afterwards

When the people of the capital saw Yuan Shikai leading the orderly Jiashen Right Army into the city, they realized that they had been saved.

"It's over, it's finally over!"

Seeing this scene, every citizen hiding in the corners and behind the bungalows cheered. The chaotic night was finally over and the city of Beijing was finally peaceful again.

Before the French soldiers in the lanes of Dongjiaomin Lane had time to come into contact with the French troops entering the city, they discovered that a large number of fully armed Qing troops were entering the city. They were forced to retreat to the embassy area and at the same time strengthen their vigilance to guard against attacks by rioters.