When the four ministers of military aircraft were just about to leave for the palace, they heard someone outside the door shouting: "Manager Li has arrived." I saw that the curtain was lifted, and Li Lianying walked into the military aircraft department with a large stack of folded books.

Seeing all the ministers of military aircraft, Li Lianying first put the folded book on the table, saluted everyone one by one, and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the queen mother occasionally feels cold, can not be a director, can not meet the minister, today will move to the Summer Palace to recuperate, the special slave will hand over these folded books to the military aircraft department, the queen mother also said that all major matters in the court will be handled by the military aircraft department in cooperation with the emperor, and after making up her mind, it will be handed over to the Summer Palace, and the queen mother will use the seal." ”

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but be stunned, but they immediately understood in their hearts that there was such a coincidental thing, and the Queen Mother was sick at this juncture, which clearly didn't want to fight with those flag nobles, so they had to pretend to be sick, and pushed Guangxu to the front desk as a shield. Of course, I'm afraid that there will be a time to get out of the matter at this sensitive time, let you go to mess around, and when you are out of control, the Queen Mother will come forward to clean up the mess. When the law was changed, the Queen Mother played this trick, and now she is repeating the old trick.

However, now it is not comparable to the Wuxu year, the imperial court has just experienced ups and downs to stabilize, and it really can't stand the toss anymore, and the emperor is pushed to the forefront, but several military ministers still don't dare to place too much expectations on him. Although the emperor's performance in the Gengzi year was quite impressive, and he was even stronger than the queen mother, after all, there was the impulse of the first year of the first day and the year of Wuxu, so at this time, if the emperor was impulsive again and insisted on turning his face with overseas Chinese, even if the queen mother came forward again, I am afraid it would be difficult to clean up. And the queen mother left the last line of defense, probably because she was afraid that the emperor would be impulsive again.

Prince Qing said: "Manager Li, I don't know what the emperor said?"

Li Lianying said: "The emperor said, please take a look at these folds first," said and pointed to the stack of folded books, "Ming'er will go to the Wenhua Hall early in the morning to see the driving plan, don't be late." After speaking, Li Lianying said goodbye and left.

Although no one touched the stack of folded books, everyone knew what was written in these folded books, but they didn't know what Cixi's attitude was, although Cixi pretended to be sick at this time, obviously she didn't want to tear her face with overseas Chinese, but what was Lafayette's mind, no one dared to say that they could guess it accurately, so what should I say when I went to the palace to see Guangxu tomorrow?

Li Hongzhang looked at Rong Lu, and was thinking about how to hint at Rong Lu, let him go and explore Cixi's tone, among the 7 ministers of military aircraft, only Rong Lu is the most trusted by Cixi, and it should not be a big deal for him to ask for the bottom, even if he can't get the bottom back, but he can also make Chen Po powerful to Cixi clearly, but don't be that the emperor is not impulsive, the Queen Mother is mad first.

At this moment, I saw another person come in from outside the door, and said, "Li Zhongtang, someone from the Yamen of the Prime Minister's Mansion has come to say that overseas Chinese have asked to see Lord Zhongtang." ”

Originally, Li Hongzhang estimated that by this time, the representatives of overseas Chinese in Beijing would come to the Yamen of the Prime Minister's Office to look for him, so when he came to the Military Aircraft Office to take up his duty today, he told the messengers of the Yamen of the Prime Minister's Office that if overseas Chinese came to look for him, he would leave them to wait at the Yamen of the Prime Minister's Office, and immediately go to the Military Aircraft Office to inform him. Now that I'm really here, I just happened to understand what the attitude of overseas Chinese is.

So Li Hongzhang immediately said to everyone: "Everyone, the old man will go to meet the overseas Chinese for a while." ”

Everyone else also understands that it is also very important to understand the attitude of overseas Chinese at this time, and this work can only be done by Li Hongzhang, not only because Li Hongzhang is also the minister of the Prime Minister's Office, but also because Li Hongzhang is the minister of military aircraft and has the most friendship with overseas Chinese. So Prince Qing immediately said: "Shaoquan, you go quickly, go quickly, we are waiting here to hear your reply." ”

Li Hongzhang hurriedly left the Military Aircraft Department and hurried back to the Yamen of the Prime Minister's Office, where Deng Yongjian, director of the Shandong Provincial Office in Beijing, was waiting for him. Deng Yongjian was originally the deputy political commissar of the Kunming ship, after the traverser captured Beijing, he was responsible for the formation of the Beijing management committee, managing the public security and administrative affairs of Beijing at that time, and later the traverser left Beijing, and Deng Yongjian became the director of the Beijing office, staying in Beijing on behalf of the East China government, while maintaining contact between Shandong and Beijing, and on the other hand, also transmitting the news of Beijing to the East China government.

The above excerpt was an action taken by the East China government on the surface, and Deng Yongjian came to meet Li Hongzhang to discuss substantive issues.

Although Deng Yongjian did not have any position in the Qing court, Li Hongzhang did not dare to snub him at all, so he received him personally, and after the two met, Li Hongzhang first said: "Director Deng came to the yamen of the Prime Minister's Office, and I don't know what to do." ”

Deng Yongjian said: "On behalf of Shandong, I asked Zhongtang whether Wen Rui's behavior this time was instructed by the imperial court?"

Li Hongzhang was stunned for a moment, a little confused, and said, "How do you say this?"

Deng Yongjian said: "Li Zhongtang, we don't need to talk around the bush now, we sent the excerpt to the imperial court, Li Zhongtang should have seen it, I came to Li Zhongtang for this matter, of course, we reached a verbal agreement with the imperial court, although we accept the official position of the governor of Shandong, but all the affairs of Shandong are handled by ourselves, and the imperial court must not interfere, this is determined by Li Zhongtang personally to our Qin political commissar, Li Zhongtang will not forget it." ”

Li Hongzhang also nodded and said, "It's true, I don't know what this has to do with Wen Rui?"

Deng Yongjian said: "The cause of this incident is that Wen Rui first sent troops to attack our land reform team in Qingzhou, but we believe that Wen Rui is the deputy commander of the Eight Banners Garrison and the highest officer of the Qingzhou Eight Banners Garrison, he is afraid that he will not attack our land reform team for no reason, so it will not be instructed by the imperial court, we hope that the imperial court can give us a clarification." ”

Only then did Li Hongzhang understand that Deng Yongjian had come to Xingshi to ask for the guilt, and he couldn't help but laugh a little in his heart, obviously it was the overseas Chinese who destroyed the Qingzhou garrison flag army, but it was the Xingshi who came to ask the guilt first, and this is the reason? What Wen Rui attacked the overseas Chinese first, if this is not the overseas Chinese talking nonsense, then it was because the overseas Chinese wanted to divide Wenrui's land that Wen Rui was attracted to send troops.

But Li Hongzhang can't say this, because the imperial court does verbally promise not to interfere in Shandong's affairs, so theoretically speaking, what overseas Chinese do in Shandong, as long as they do not openly rebel, such as land reform and other things, the imperial court cannot interfere. And now the overseas Chinese are still insisting on Wen Rui's dispatch of troops to the imperial court, is this clearly reversing black and white?

However, as soon as the other party was aggressively questioning, Li Hongzhang couldn't go toe-to-toe with them, so wouldn't he freeze at first? So Li Hongzhang said: "Director Deng, the imperial court has no such intention, this matter is still Wen Rui's private doing, and it has nothing to do with the imperial court, so you must not listen to rumors." ”

Deng Yongjian said: "Please forgive me for being blunt, Li Zhongtang's words are only one-sided, even if I personally want to believe Li Zhongtang, but it is difficult to convince our leaders based on Li Zhongtang's words, so if this matter really has nothing to do with the imperial court, we also hope that the imperial court can make some substantive clarification actions." ”

Li Hongzhang smiled bitterly, understanding that the overseas Chinese were going to use this matter to blackmail the imperial court and reap benefits, and the overseas Chinese would take advantage of the opportunity, but they didn't know what conditions the overseas Chinese would offer, so he said: "I don't know what you want the imperial court to do?"

Deng Yongjian said: "We have already defined Wen Rui as a rebel in the excerpt, if this matter really has nothing to do with the imperial court, then we hope that the imperial court can confirm it." ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, in fact, he understood very well that this fold of overseas Chinese is to force the imperial court to the edge of the cliff, if it is recognized, then the relationship between the two sides can be maintained for a period of time, and if the imperial court does not recognize it, the two sides will basically tear their faces, there is no third option, but the imperial court obviously cannot choose to tear their faces, they can only cooperate with overseas Chinese to round this play.

Some people may think that Wen Rui is dead, and that it is not superfluous for overseas Chinese to insist that the imperial court admit Wen Rui's rebellion? However, Li Hongzhang knows that overseas Chinese never do meaningless things, and forcing the imperial court to admit Wen Rui's rebellion will have many benefits for overseas Chinese. Wen Rui was killed by overseas Chinese and was charged with rebellion, so that who would dare to oppose the overseas Chinese in Shandong; secondly, they also beat the imperial court, not to try to interfere in Shandong's affairs, and to force the overseas Chinese to be anxious.

Deng Yongjian said: "We have a large number of railways in Shandong that need to be built, so I hope that the imperial court can send Mr. Zhan Tianyou to Shandong to assist us in building railways." ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, this request is not excessive, I believe that the imperial court will not have objections.

Deng Yongjian then said: "I also hope that the imperial court can officially follow down and warn the local officials in Shandong not to do stupid things in the future, otherwise they will only be unlucky, and we think that the imperial court should successively transfer local officials in Shandong, and we will arrange personnel to fill these vacancies." ”

Li Hongzhang's heart trembled, knowing that the overseas Chinese were planning to eliminate the local officials in Shandong and replace them with their own people, and this was the most taboo thing for the imperial court, although the imperial court recognized the independent privilege of overseas Chinese in Shandong, but in terms of personnel appointment and dismissal, overseas Chinese only had the right to recommend, and the final decision was in the hands of the imperial court, which was also the last reliance of the imperial court。