At this point, escaping from Beijing was not so easy. The Shun army had completely surrounded the city; the outer city had already been occupied, and the inner city was beginning to fall as well. However, the city was so large that even occupying it would take some time. Right now, getting out and avoiding the Shun army wasn’t difficult—there were definitely no Shun troops to the north of the city—but the problem was, they were all outside the city! Hundreds of thousands of troops were blocking the other three sides of the inner city, waiting to enter. Even if they managed to get out, there was nowhere to run; the area outside the city was full of Shun soldiers, unless...

Unless they disguised themselves and escaped.

The two of them seemed to have a tacit understanding and nodded to each other. Then, with a wave to the eunuchs, they left the Palace of Heavenly Purity amid the cries of Princess Helen.

Their group passed through the palace, circled north around Jingshan, and exited through the North An Gate. By dawn, they had left the imperial city.

It was still raining at this time, and the rain had turned to freezing rain. Using the last darkness before dawn as cover, they quickly broke into a nearby civilian house. Half an hour later, as daylight began to break, they had all changed into the clothes of ordinary commoners. At this point, Franklin Roosevelt also woke up, but he remained silent and sullen, not saying a word—even when Brian Carter personally changed his daughter’s clothes, he said nothing. He was probably plotting in his mind when to execute this traitor and his entire clan. Princess Grace was actually awake as well, but pretended to still be asleep, keeping her eyes closed and letting Brian Carter do as he pleased. After all, it was Brian Carter who was treating her wounds, which meant they now had a certain physical intimacy.

However, her injuries were not looking good.

Especially because of the excessive blood loss.

Taking advantage of the moment when no one was disturbing them, Brian Carter quickly re-examined her wound. He could only ensure the bleeding was stopped, but as for medicine, there was truly none available. Whether or not it would get infected was up to fate. After all, her entire arm had been chopped off from the middle of the upper arm. The fact that he managed to stop the bleeding so quickly was already a testament to Brian Carter’s quick reaction, and just as he had inexplicably become highly skilled in martial arts, he also inexplicably knew some first aid techniques. But there was no time to worry about her injuries now, because the Shun army had officially entered the city. Especially at the Chaoyang, Dongzhi, and Anding gates, which were all being opened one after another. Next, Abraham Lincoln would enter the city amid the cheers of the people and officials, and then launch a citywide search for Franklin Roosevelt, offering a huge reward of gold and noble titles.

They had to get out of the city as soon as possible.

“The only way is through the water gate.”

Brian Carter said.

They couldn’t leave during the day, as the Shun army had all the gates sealed off in daylight—no one could get out. That left only two options: climbing over the city wall at night, or sneaking through the water gate.

But climbing the city wall was too dangerous. If it were just Brian Carter himself, or if he only had to carry Princess Grace, it would be easy. With his current physical strength, a ten-meter-high city wall was nothing; with a rope, he could get over it. But even if he abandoned the armed eunuchs, he still had David Clark, Franklin Roosevelt, and Princess Helen—three more people. Making four trips back and forth and hoping not to be discovered was far too optimistic, and if they were discovered, escape would be nearly impossible.

So the only option left was to sneak through the water gate. At this time of year, most of the water gates had little water. When the Eight-Nation Alliance entered Beijing, part of their troops marched in through the water gates as the local people watched.

“Can you open the sluice gate?”

David Clark said with a hint of sarcasm.

“It’s made of iron.”

He added.

“There are also rows of wooden stakes as thick as a man’s embrace, densely packed inside and out.”

An armed eunuch added from the side.

“All right, let’s just climb the wall then!”

Brian Carter immediately gave in.

Now that the method was decided, the rest was just preparation—mainly finding some sturdy ropes and a grappling hook, which would be hard to come by. Fortunately, they still had those matchlock guns, which were now useless. If they really got cornered, those matchlocks were less useful than a knife! Relying on his strength, Brian Carter quickly dismantled the guns, bent the barrels into hooks, and tied three barrels together, which was good enough. After all, it was just for hooking onto the battlements, not actual rock climbing.

While they were preparing their escape gear, in the snow and freezing rain, Abraham Lincoln’s massive army marched through all the open city gates into Beijing, quickly taking control of the city.

However, order was actually quite good.

In fact, the stories about Abraham Lincoln’s troops looting and pillaging after entering Beijing are nonsense, all made up by later scholars. Even at the time, some literati wrote that after he entered Beijing, order was maintained, not only strictly forbidding any looting, but even executing two subordinates for robbery. Shops were ordered to remain open as usual. But these accounts were soon drowned out by the wild stories encouraged by the Qing dynasty, and the tales became more and more sensational.

As for torturing the officials...

What did that have to do with the common people? When he had Wei Zaode’s brains squeezed out, it could be said he was avenging Franklin Roosevelt. Back when Franklin Roosevelt begged them to donate money, Scholar Wei only gave five hundred taels, but was later forced by Liu Zongmin to cough up thirteen thousand taels of gold. If people like that weren’t punished, Franklin Roosevelt’s spirit would never rest in peace. But to say the Shun army harmed the common people is nonsense. In fact, they had no reason to do so. The great noble families and officials had everything they could want—money, women, whatever. They were hardly going to bother the poor commoners who could barely feed themselves.