Although the battle was confined to the front of the Qing army, Cixi did not see it at all, only faintly heard a few gunshots, but after hearing Song Qing's return, Cixi was still frightened, and hurriedly set off and immediately set off to Zhengding Mansion, because Cixi felt that it was safer only to hide in the city.

So the Qing court's team stepped up the march, and Cixi ordered Song Qing to divide a part of the army to protect the baggage and the rear line, and the rest to protect herself, Guangxu and the princes and ministers to travel lightly and quickly, and hurry to Zhengding Mansion. At the same time, he also ordered the greeting etiquette of Zhengding Mansion to be simple, which is not that Lafayette has changed his nature, learned the lessons of the past, or is sympathetic, but after this catastrophe, Lafayette has become a frightened bird, what if there are assassins mixed with the people who greet the holy car?

As a result, Cixi and his entourage hurried for a day and a night, Cixi and Guangxu only took a nap in the car to rest, but fortunately, there was no attack on the road and arrived at Zhengding City safely. After entering the city, Cixi immediately ordered that the whole city be under martial law, and sent heavy troops to protect the Zhengding Mansion, and at the same time sent people to rush to Baoding Mansion immediately, asking Yuan Shikai to lead troops to escort him.

However, Xu Chang, Zhao Pinghe, Mingxiu and others couldn't help but be overjoyed, because the longer the imperial court stayed in Zhengding Mansion, the more convenient it would be for their activities, and maybe it would also alarm Lafayette about the affairs of overseas Chinese.

Although Zhao Pinghe and Zhao Shuqiao are of the same clan, they used to send Zhao Shuqiao thousands of taels of silver every year, but they actually only met Zhao Shuqiao twice, and they were still in the big banquet, that is, they nodded and greeted each other, because of the same clan like Zhao Pinghe, Zhao Shuqiao has more than a dozen, and they can meet one by one. Therefore, the person who is directly in contact with Zhao Pinghe is a steward of Zhao Shuqiao, but because of the Gengzi State Change, this steward does not know where to go, and Zhao Pinghe's exit is equivalent to losing contact with the organization.

Fortunately, Zhao Pinghe was willing to spend money, up and down, and finally found another doorway, re-connected with Zhao Shuqiao, and expressed his intention, of course, he immediately sent 5,000 taels of silver, in exchange for an opportunity for Zhao Shuqiao to meet in person. On the other side, Mingxiu and Ronglu also got on the line.

Zhao Pinghe and Zhao Shuqiao also have the same clan name, while Mingxiu and Ronglu didn't even have a relationship at all before, and the only link is that both of them are flag people. After more than 200 years of development, by this time the banner people have expanded more than one million people, if you add the Han flag, the Mongolian flag, it will reach more than 1.5 million, but because the Qing court implemented a strict distinction between the Manchu and Han, so the vast majority of the banner people can only intermarry with each other, forming an intricate complex kinship, in the vast majority of cases, even if it is two banner people who have never known each other within three generations, most of them can climb relatives.

Mingxiu is like this, and he has a little kinship with Ronglu, of course, in order to climb this relative, he also gave 10,000 taels of silver, and also got a chance to meet Ronglu. However, even if they brought the silver, it was for the purpose of spending it, so naturally they were not afraid to spend the silver, but they were afraid that they would not be able to spend it with the silver. And getting the opportunity to meet shows that the money is not unjustly spent.

Zhao Pinghe first visited Zhao Shuqiao, and handed over the joint letter of the squire of Jinan, Zhao Shuqiao read the book very seriously, and then told Zhao Pinghe that he accepted the book, but now the imperial court has just experienced the Gengzi national change, the queen mother and the emperor have not returned to Beijing, and the overseas Chinese have made great contributions to the imperial court after all, and there can be no more trouble at this time, so even if you want to play Wang Sheng, you can't act in a hurry, you need to wait for some time.

In fact, Zhao Shuqiao knows very well that at least in the past three or five years, the imperial court has no way to take overseas Chinese, and now the four words of overseas Chinese are taboo in front of Lafayette, so at this time, don't you find yourself unhappy to mention overseas Chinese?

However, Zhao Shuqiao didn't want to let Zhao Pinghe die completely immediately, because after the Gengzi Kingdom Change, his savings for many years as an official must be gone, and these dependency relationships have also been broken, and it is not easy to connect with one, so he can give up like this, after all, if this relationship is established again, it is thousands of taels of silver a year, this is not just 5,000 taels when he meets, this cash cow can be easily let go, so he vaguely agreed to talk about it.

Of course, Zhao Shuqiao also thought about it, after a while, this limelight went, just said in front of Cixi, it is not difficult to tell overseas Chinese, you can find a royal envoy to do it, you don't need Zhao Shuqiao to come forward in person, but whether it can be done is not Zhao Shuqiao's business, anyway, when the time comes, push the queen mother, only say that the queen mother wants to protect overseas Chinese, what can she do.

Although Zhao Pinghe's age is about the same as Zhao Shuqiao, and he has experienced a lot of personal accidents, but compared with an old official driver like Zhao Shuqiao, he is still much more tender, and Zhao Shuqiao is not unreasonable, now that the imperial court has not returned to Beijing, of course, it is impossible to deal with the affairs of overseas Chinese, since Zhao Shuqiao has promised, there is great hope. So Zhao Pinghe retired, and immediately after he returned, he sent someone to send 5,000 taels of silver to Zhao Shuqiao.

Anyway, Zhao Pinghe finally got a piece of cake painted by Zhao Shuqiao, and he also had a psychological comfort, and Mingxiu went to see Rong Lu and proposed to sue overseas Chinese, but was scolded by Rong Lu. I want Mingxiu to go back to Shandong as soon as possible, stay at home honestly, don't mess around with unreliable people, overseas Chinese are not something he can afford to provoke.

Because Mingxiu is relatively young, Rong Lu occupies the position of an elder after recognizing his relatives, so he can not be very polite, and Rong Lu is Cixi's most trusted minister, and every gift from local officials is indispensable to Rong Lu's share, and now Rong Lu has saved a lot of money, and he doesn't pay much attention to the silver given by Ming Xiu. In addition, Rong Lu is actually for the good of Mingxiu, and there is absolutely no good end for going against overseas Chinese, after all, he is also a flag man, and Rong Lu can't bear to watch Mingxiu unlucky, if he can pull him, he will pull him, but Ming Xiuming doesn't understand his hard work, so he can't control it.

touched a nose in front of Rong Lu, although Mingxiu did not understand Rong Lu's hard work, but he also knew that after going back, he would definitely lose face, after all, Zhao Pinghe had already received Zhao Shuqiao's promise. However, Mingxiu is also a little clever, and after returning to his residence, he made up a set of nonsense, only saying that Rong Lu's attitude is similar to Zhao Shuqiao's, and he is willing to impeach overseas Chinese, but he can't yet, and he has to wait for the court to settle down after returning to Beijing.

Xu Chang and Zhao Pinghe did not doubt this, and they had spent more than 50,000 taels of silver on this trip, but they finally got an empty promise, and they also had an explanation after they went back, and as for the remaining more than 130,000 taels of silver, they would wait until the official start of the overseas Chinese to use it, so the three of them immediately packed up their things and returned to Shandong.

At this time, Yuan Shikai led 1,000 Beiyang New Army, and joined the Beiyang New Army withdrawn from Shandong, a total of about 7,000 people, rushed to Zhengding Mansion to meet Cixi.

There were more than 7,000 troops at once, and Cixi's heart was also a lot more settled, and in Cixi's heart, Yuan Shikai belonged to a minister who could be trusted, so Cixi immediately summoned Yuan Shikai with Guangxu.

This is the second time Yuan Shikai has been received by Cixi, the last time was three years ago, Yuan Shikai told Rong Lu to betray the reformers of the Wuxu Reform, and thus won Cixi's trust, and also laid the foundation for his rise.

To be honest, Yuan Shikai was also shocked when he learned that someone had attacked the imperial court, he should have known about Jing Tingbin's uprising and the capture of the county seat, of course, Yuan Shikai did not take this group of thieves in his eyes, just because he had to welcome the imperial court and his party now, so he didn't have the time to pay attention to them, otherwise as soon as his Beiyang New Army arrived, it would be easy to quell the rebellion of this group of thieves.

It's just that Yuan Shikai really didn't expect that the cowardice of this group of thieves was really not small, and they dared to pluck the hair on the tiger's head, Tai Sui's head broke ground, and attacked the convoy of the imperial court, fortunately, the queen mother and the emperor did not hurt, otherwise he would have a big responsibility, because Yuan Shikai was the governor of Zhili, although he had just taken office, but after all, it was something that happened in Zhili, and he couldn't escape from it, so after seeing Cixi and Guangxu, Yuan Shikai looked frightened and knelt down to ask for guilt.

However, Cixi's attitude was very kind, and said: "Yuan Shikai, you get up first, this is not in Beijing, these etiquettes are simpler." ”

Yuan Shikai hurriedly confessed and stood up. Cixi added: "For more than a year, the state affairs have been difficult, and the imperial court has been displaced, and it is not easy for you local officials to maintain local stability. ”

Yuan Shikai listened to it, and his heart was also greatly settled, Cixi's words actually contained a lot of information, and at the same time, it also completely dispelled the biggest concern in Yuan Shikai's heart.

After the Wuxu coup, Yuan Shikai firmly stood on Cixi's side, and with the support of Cixi, he became the governor of Shandong, officially squeezing into the ranks of the feudal officials. However, at the beginning of the Gengzi State Change, the Qing court declared war on various countries, and issued an edict to Yuan Shikai to lead the troops to the north, but after thinking about it, Yuan Shikai joined the southeast mutual protection and did not send troops to the north.

However, Yuan Shikai also understood that although he could protect himself by doing so, he was undoubtedly offending the imperial court, and he had offended Cixi, if the imperial court returned to Beijing in the future to take power again, he was afraid that he would be liquidated, and Yuan Shikai also did a lot of remedial work, when Cixi was still in Taiyuan, Yuan Shikai prepared 100,000 silver to Cixi to send, and also prepared another 25,000 silver to Cixi's accompanying officials and eunuchs, so that they could speak more for themselves. Later, I sent money and goods several times one after another.

Although before returning to Beijing, although the Qing court issued an order to affirm the behavior of mutual insurance in the southeast, Yuan Shikai still couldn't feel at ease, after all, the credit of the imperial court was worth a few dollars, and Yuan Shikai was naturally very clear. Old qualified local officials like Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, and Liu Kunyi may not dare to touch them, but it is not difficult to attack a newcomer like himself. Therefore, Cixi's words also reassured Yuan Shikai.