In the old time and space, it was generally believed that Li Hongzhang was the loyal minister of the Qing court, and won the trust of the Qing court, at least Cixi, in fact, whether it was Cixi or Guangxu, almost never trusted Li Hongzhang 100%, but in the more than 10 years before the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang was very guarded, and set up a lot of small stumbling blocks for Li Hongzhang. The reason is that at that time, Li Hongzhang had the most elite army of the Qing court, the Huai Army, which was enough to threaten the imperial court.

After the Beiyang Naval Division was formed, the Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled the navy's military funds to repair the Summer Palace, and did not add a single cannon for 7 years. Therefore, the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War was a complete defeat for Li Hongzhang, but for the Qing court, it was a lost corner, and the harvest of Sangyu was at least an internal hidden danger.

But in this time and space, in the past few years after the Gengzi State Change, Cixi and Guangxu really trusted Li Hongzhang, and they also obeyed Li Hongzhang's opinions. And now that Li Hongzhang is dead, if the Qing court encounters another crisis, who else can stand up and solve problems for the court?

This year is Cixi's 70th birthday, and Cixi has already entered the age of ancient rarity.

So Cixi and Guangxu ordered that today's court meeting be canceled, and ordered the Military Aircraft Department to discuss the pursuit and mercy of Li Hongzhang.

On the second day, the Qing court sent Li Lianying as a messenger to Li Hongzhang's mansion to deliver the decree, first of all, Li Hongzhang was highly rewarded, praised Li Hongzhang's merits for the Qing court, and gave him the nickname "Wenzhong", posthumously presented the Taifu, plus a first-class Su Yi Gong, gave a yellow coat to be buried together, rewarded 3,000 taels of silver for burial, sent 20 guards to escort Li Hongzhang's coffin back to his hometown, and changed Li Hongzhang's hometown Feidong County, Luzhou Prefecture, Anhui Province to Shaoquan County. At the same time, he also added Li Hongzhang's three sons and one daughter, Li Jingfang was crowned a third-class earl, Li Jingshu and Li Jingmai were second-class viscounts, and even Zhang Peilun also added a third-class baron.

It should be said that the Qing court's bereavement of Li Hongzhang was quite generous, and the Qing court's nickname for meritorious heroes generally began with the word "Wen", and the second word was the evaluation of meritorious heroes, such as Zeng Guofan's nickname was "Wenzheng" and Zuo Zongtang's nickname was "Wenxiang".

But Zeng and Zuo were added after their deaths were all marquises, but Li Hongzhang added dukes, which was obviously higher than Zeng and Zuo, and the others gave yellow coats to be buried together, rewarded silver, sent guards to escort the coffin back to their hometowns, changed the name of the county, etc., are also extremely high honors, throughout the history of the Qing court for more than 2 6 0 years, only Li Hongzhang alone enjoys such an honor. What's more, Li Lianying was sent to personally pass on the decree by Chief Manager Li, and there were a few people in the Great Qing Dynasty who could work for General Manager Li.

After reading out the holy decree, Li Lianying respectfully put three pillars of incense on Li Hongzhang, and said a few comforting words to Li Jingfang, Li Jingshu, and Li Jingmai, such as "festival mourning and change", and then said goodbye and went back to the palace.

Originally, Li Hongzhang was a high position in the Qing court, and the court was very kind to him, so the princes and ministers naturally did not dare to slack off, needless to say, Li Hongzhang had a good friendship, and those who could come to pay respects in person would never send their families, some people with outstanding literary talents, and also wrote a couplet, Zhang Zhidong also personally wrote a memorial to Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai also made a special trip from Tianjin, and gave Li Hongzhang a night of mourning, and even if it was Li Hongzhang's political opponent, they also sent a family member with a face to pay respects, overall, Li Hongzhang's funeral was quite beautiful。

Seven days later, Li Jingfang, Li Jingshu, Li Jingmai, as well as Zhang Peilun and Li Jingxuan returned to their hometowns for burial, and almost all the officials of the Beijing division came to see them off, and the procession to see them off was more than 20 kilometers. Li Hongzhang's residence in Beijing was converted into his ancestral hall.

And after Li Hongzhang's coffin left, a battle between the court and the middle of the court was immediately launched, and now Li Hongzhang is the minister of military aircraft, worthy of the name Li Zhongtang, and Li Hongzhang died, there was a vacancy of a military aircraft, of course, the number of military aircraft ministers was not fixed, more than one or less can be, but now the Qing government has recovered from the Gengzi State Change, and the new policy has also been carried out for 4 years, so Cixi also wants to carry out a major reorganization of the military aircraft department. Naturally, many people have the idea of fighting for it.

The day after Li Hongzhang's coffin left Beijing, the Qing court officially issued an order and announced the new list of military aircraft departments, and the military aircraft foreman was still Prince Qing Yixuan, and the others were Zhang Zhidong, Qu Hongzhen, Prince Zaifeng, Shi Xu, Na Tong, Lu Chuanlin, and Yuan Shikai. Among them, the last four people are all entering the military aircraft department for the first time, and half of the people in the entire military aircraft department have been replaced, and the movement is not insignificant. The impact on the political situation of the Qing court was even more far-reaching.

The current political situation of the Qing court is very complicated, with many factions, of course, this is also a situation deliberately created by Cixi, and among the various political factions, the most powerful are the real power faction led by Prince Qing and Yuan Shikai.

After the Gengzi State Change, Yuan Shikai was working hard to pull out the relationship between himself and Prince Qing, because at this time, it had become customary for the Qing court to serve as the foreman of the military aircraft, and Prince Qing was the oldest, and he was trusted by Cixi, so Yuan Shikai thought that for a long time in the future, Prince Qing would serve as the foreman of the military aircraft, and Yuan Shikai wanted to consolidate his power, so he naturally had to make friends with Prince Qing. And Prince Qing has always been greedy for money, so Yuan Shikai did what he liked, and gave a large sum of silver, and the relationship between the two quickly warmed up, and finally formed an alliance.

In fact, although Prince Qing has always given people the impression of being greedy for money and mediocrity, he is by no means incompetent, otherwise it would not have been possible to experience decades in the political arena in the late Qing Dynasty, and become a military aircraft foreman step by step. Of course, Prince Qing knew that the position of military aircraft foreman was the target of everyone, after all, there were still many princes of the Qing Dynasty, and I don't know how many pairs of eyes were staring at him, so if he wanted to sit in this position for a long time and sit firmly, in addition to continuing to please Cixi, he must also have the support of a powerful partner in the court. And Yuan Shikai is a suitable candidate, plus Yuan Shikai will also come to work, and he will not be stingy in giving silver, so the two hit it off. Prince Qing controlled the power of the military aircraft, and Yuan Shikai controlled the strongest army of the Qing court, the Beiyang New Army.

And for the alliance between the two, Li Hongzhang also played a certain role in facilitating, although Li Hongzhang did not join the alliance between the two, but the personal relationship with the two is good, and Li Hongzhang thinks that these two people are pragmatic people, the current Qing court is most lacking such a pragmatic person, Prince Qing's talent is indeed a little worse, but he knows how not to command indiscriminately, and hand things over to people who can do it, which is quite good. Therefore, Li Hongzhang gave them a certain amount of support in the open and in secret, of course, Prince Qing and Yuan Shikai also knew how to repay Li with peach, and they also tried their best to support Li Hongzhang's suggestions, Li Hongzhang was able to stop the radical proposals of the Manchu magnates several times, and they also had a part of their strength.

This reorganization of the military aircraft, Yuan Shikai was able to enter the military aircraft, which greatly increased the strength of the Qingyuan combination, and further consolidated the position of the two, of course, the reason why Cixi arranged it this way is also to take a fancy to these two people who can do things, and they are pragmatic, after all, the current Qing court needs people who can do things. Moreover, Li Hongzhang's death was also a blow to the two of them, and transferring Yuan Shikai to the military plane could also better control him, so the strength of the Qingyuan combination did not increase as much as it appeared on the surface, and Lafayette's wrist was not comparable to leisure.

The second major force is the Manchu elite faction, the main personnel are Prince Su Shanqi, Liangbi, Pu Wei, Tieliang, Rongqing, Yinchang and others, the leading idea of this group of people is to restore the Manchu dominance in the early and middle Qing Dynasty, to wrest power from the hands of Hanchen, so the actions and plans are very radical, several times asked the Qing court and the East China government to break up, it is this faction leading.

Although Prince Qing's talent is mediocre, he also understands that the rise of Hanchen is irreversible, and the idea of this group of people is impossible to realize, and only by cooperating with Hanchen can we ensure that the Qing court can be maintained; Li Hongzhang and others are working against each other, and the momentum is like fire and water. But this is also what Cixi is happy to see.

And this military reorganization, the Manchu elite faction suffered the greatest blow, the two backbone Tie Liang and Rong Qing were removed from the military plane, although Tie Liang was reappointed as the secretary of the Ministry of War, and Rong Qing was reappointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, both of them still retained a power, but they are not the same as the minister of military aircraft.

In fact, Cixi also knew very well that the Manchus did not have many talents, and if the Qing Dynasty wanted to maintain it, it must rely on the Han Chen, and the extreme behavior of the Manchu magnates was not advisable at all, and if they really wanted to seize the power of the Han Chen and transfer it to the Manchu magnates, the Qing court might not be able to last even a year. The role of Cixi in allowing the existence of the Manchu magnates was only to contain the real power faction, but recently, the Manchu magnates have asked the Qing court to send troops to the northeast several times, and even catered to the suggestions of some foreigners, which made Cixi quite annoyed.

For participating in the war in Liaodong, Cixi's attitude is the same as Li Hongzhang's, the Qing court is better to watch the tiger fight from a mountain, don't go to this muddy water, and the advice of the foreigners, Cixi has never dared to believe it, so this time the Manchu magnates are obviously doing a little too much, it is necessary to beat them, so Tieliang, Rong Qing moved out of the military plane, but he couldn't beat the Manchu magnates to death with a stick, after all, the Qing Dynasty was still headed by Manchus, and when necessary, this faction was still useful, so let Tie Liang serve as the secretary of the military department and Rong Qing as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

Of course, the Manchu elite faction is temporarily injured, and there is no one in the military aircraft department, so naturally it will not be able to contain the real power faction, but Lafayette is not easy to get along, and he has made preparations for this early, and has fostered two new political forces in case of contingency, and at the same time it is also a warning to the Manchu elite faction, which means don't think that Lafayette must use you, and you Lafayette can still have fun without you.