Chapter 112: The City Falls

  The defense of the Beijing city wall should be said to be very tight, with hundreds of large cannons alone. Unfortunately, no one uses them, so they become decorations. In the firelight of exploding shells and the toxic fog of mustard gas, those Manchu soldiers who survived even if they had pigskin-like skin would likely be suffocated to death. Even if some didn't run away cleanly, it's probably because they were too scared to get up after being frightened by the cannons.

  Three pontoon trucks drove straight to the moat without any obstruction. At this time of year, there was not much water in the moat anyway, and it was only waist-deep at its deepest point. After estimating the length, the accompanying crane first lifted down a prefabricated steel frame bridge pier, which was then placed into the river. Next, wooden planks were hoisted up, with one end resting on the riverbank and the other on the bridge pier. In this way, half of the moat had been traversed. The 20-meter-long crane arm then lifted another set, which was then put in place with human assistance, completing the task. This scene left the defending soldiers, who were about to flee to Dongzhimen, staring in amazement.

  After the withdrawal of the bridge truck, another truck came forward. At this time, the car was no longer a mysterious thing under Yang Feng's engine, transmission, tires, and gasoline explosion-proof devices. There were foreigners who brought cars to Beijing to catch up with the fashion. Although the truck was a bit bigger, it didn't scare the Eight Banners elite, but what surprised them was that this truck stopped at the root of the city wall after passing through the bridge, and then the people on the car got off and pulled an electric wire back and forth.

  "They're going to blow up the city wall!" someone among the Eight Banners' elite shouted, but it was followed by a burst of awkward laughter. Although the enemy's artillery fire was fierce and the poisonous gas was vicious, thinking that they could just blow open the iron-clad Beijing city like this was still a bit far-fetched. Blowing up the city wall wasn't impossible, but first, they had to dig tunnels to bury explosives underneath, and it would take tens of thousands of pounds of explosives, not just the little bit on that cart outside which would be useless for blowing up anything.

  However, the Japanese army on the opposite side performed completely differently. Those soldiers who had experienced the great explosion of Nagoya's Tengoku Tower, after the engineer ran back with the detonator, hurriedly covered their ears and opened their mouths one by one, and also forced those who hadn't experienced that scene to follow suit. That time, many didn't do as Yang boss required, and were shocked until their ears bled, and two became deaf. And that was just one ton of TNT. This damn thing had at least three tons loaded.

  "Marshal, is this explosive enough?" Yuan Shikai asked with some unease.

  "You just put the armor plates of an ironclad warship on the city wall, and these explosives will be enough." Yang Fengxie said with a wicked smile, then took the detonator from the engineer's hand and handed it to Yuan Shikai, and he himself quickly ran back to the car and put on his earmuffs.

  Yuan Shikai still didn't know that General Yang was going to betray him. Looking at the distant Beijing city wall, under the instigation of his trusted followers, he excitedly pressed down on the detonator. Then, he saw the truck suddenly disappear and a huge fireball rise from the ground like a mountain. In an instant, the supposedly iron-strong Beijing city wall turned into countless fragments flying towards the sky. At that moment, the massive explosion sound finally arrived, and he felt as if his ears had been punched by someone, unable to help but let out a sharp cry. Then, the entire world fell silent.

  It was even more so for him. For the defenders on the city wall, it was truly a heaven-shaking and earth-shattering event. A section of the city wall dozens of meters long was directly blown up, with debris flying hundreds of meters high into the sky before crashing down like cannonballs, the blast wave blowing the nearby Chaoyangmen gate tower to just a skeleton, countless soldiers and rubble were blown out together. Sweeping everything away like a shotgun blast.

  It wasn't just the garrison that was unlucky, but also the civilian residences behind the city walls. The shockwave swept through like a giant hand of God, knocking down countless houses, and a clear line of destruction expanded outward, even affecting the Hengwang Palace hundreds of meters away. At this time, Prince Yong of Heng was just about to leave this place of trouble, but as soon as he got into his eight-man sedan chair and exited the gate, he was blown away along with the chair. The old man struggled to get up from the ground, and just as he lifted his head to admire the new look of his palace, a flying severed head hit him in the chest, causing him to shriek and faint again.

  The Empress Dowager was being attended to by palace maids and eunuchs when a deafening explosion suddenly shook the air. The old woman was so startled that she sat down on the ground, bringing down the chamber pot with her, covering herself in excrement. The blast spread through the air at over 300 meters per second, causing chaos wherever it went, and with the rolling smoke coming from the direction of Chaoyang Gate, those who were clever already knew what had happened.

  "The city has fallen!" The terrified screams immediately spread throughout the city.

  The city of Beijing has become the last psychological defense line for the Manchu people, especially the inner city, which has become a symbol of their ruling power. The iron-clad city of Beijing means an iron-clad regime. The cannon fire of the Eight-Nation Alliance blasting open the city of Beijing told the Han people of this country that the alien tribe that had ruled them for hundreds of years had lost its last fig leaf. In this time and space, there would not be an Eight-Nation Alliance, so this task was replaced by Yang Feng. This guy has countless ways to solve the problem in front of him, but he just wants to use this most direct and arrogant way. The three tons of antimony blasting open is not only the city wall of Beijing, but also the dam that blocks the Han people's heart.

  "This, this Yang Feng is too reckless." Ghost Six said with a quivering lip after he understood what was going on. He was a knowledgeable person and naturally knew what the fall of Beijing City meant.

  "What's the worst that could happen? At most, I'll just have to fix it again." Guangxu's mind couldn't think of so much, this loud noise also announced his liberation, from now on he completely got rid of his father's control, his current mood was like a high school student who had just finished the college entrance exam, full of excitement and freedom.

  Guizi Liu smiled wryly, the earthen city wall was easy to repair, but the city wall in his heart was difficult to mend. However, at this time, he couldn't afford to consider this problem, and the fall of Beijing meant that his last concern no longer existed. He immediately summoned his servants, put on a formal court dress with great solemnity, and escorted Guangxu, who was also wearing a dragon robe, out of the gate.

  "What are you all looking at? The emperor is here, and you still don't kneel down to greet him. Do you want to wait for your entire family to be executed?" Guizi Liu said with a gloomy face, his words were truly kind-hearted, reminding these guys that if they didn't surrender now, they would have no chance later.

  "The Empress Dowager has an edict, asking the Emperor to enter the palace." A eunuch who was a supervisor of the military at this time still wanted to struggle a bit, but as soon as he finished speaking, he was kicked down by a military officer behind him.

  "This dead eunuch actually dares to forge the Empress Dowager's edict!" The officer cursed and said.

  Guizi Liu looked at him with great satisfaction.

  The officer hastily led his men to kneel down and look at the red tassels in front of him, and the little dog couldn't help but burst out laughing proudly.

  "Return to the palace and summon Yang Qing's family and all the generals to enter the palace for rewards!" He said with satisfaction.

  "Elder Buddha, the city has fallen!" At this time, Li Lianying was crying and reporting the bad news to Cixi. Cixi, who was taking a bath, glared at him and said, "What's the panic? I am the Empress Dowager, can the Emperor dare to kill his own mother?"

  Li Lianying got up with a crying face, thinking in her heart that the emperor did not dare to do anything to you, but what about me? I'm afraid being cut into pieces would be too light.

  "Has Yang Feng entered the city?" Cixi said calmly.

  "Report to Her Majesty, not yet." Li Lianying said.

  "This little monkey is quite interesting." Cixi couldn't help but laugh, then looked at Li Lianying's pale face and sighed, "You don't have to look like this, it's not over yet!"

  Li Lianying was stunned for a moment.

  The situation outside was indeed strange. After blowing up the Beijing city wall, the Japanese army did not enter the city as expected, but instead stopped outside. Not only were the people inside the city baffled, even Yuan Shikai and Song Qing were perplexed by Yang Feng's order.

  "What are you people after this time?" Yang Da Boss said with a sly smile.

  Who knows what you're after, are we being led by the nose or not? Song Qing and others muttered to themselves, but Yuan Shikai seemed to have understood a bit, and he tentatively asked: "General, what do you mean?"

  "Who's in power in this court is none of our business, they're all from the Aixinjueluo family, what does it have to do with me, a Yang? We came here seeking only to gain official positions and wealth, whoever offers us the highest price will get our help. Now that we've already breached Beijing, it's like we've already shown our value, now we just wait for them to make an offer."

  "I have a copy of your reward requirements here, take a look for yourselves. If there's anything you're not satisfied with, change it yourself." Yang Feng said as he handed over an official position chart to Yuan Shikai.

  Looking at the Zhejiang Governor and First Class Viscount behind his own name, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but feel a sudden surge of excitement in his heart. He then looked puzzled and asked: "Then why didn't you mention it when Sun Yiweng delivered the imperial edict?"

  "It's very simple, because I want to blow up Beijing City!" Yang Feng said with a pure face.

  This guy never intended to help the little dog get into power, nor did he want to help him reform and make the Qing dynasty linger on. He didn't have a good heart, his goal was to start a military coup to set an example for the Han warlords, and to intensify the bloody struggle between the emperor and the empress dowager. Can you imagine how Cixi and Guangxu would continue this big show after he withdrew at the most critical moment? Especially those who were already in danger, how would they face Cixi's anger? It's not just one person who was betrayed this time, like Guizi Liu, Weng Tonghe, they probably won't die but will be severely punished. And what about those fence-sitters, especially Li Hongzhang and Wang Wenshao? How will Cixi deal with them? And how will Li Hongzhang, who holds military power, respond? These are all very much worth looking forward to.

  Now just wait for guests to come to the door, of course if Cixi doesn't behave well then continue investing in little dogs.