When the People's Army defeated the Russian army in the northeast battlefield, captured Harbin, and besieged Shenyang, the second anti-encirclement and suppression battle in the domestic river and lake base areas also continued at the same time.

After encircling and annihilating the army of the third town of Beiyang and capturing Duan Qirui, the volunteers swung their troops north, and captured the Daimyofu, Guangping Mansion, Jizhou Mansion, Shunde Mansion and other places in a company.

This time the Qing court was shocked, it turned out that after Duan Qirui recovered the Hebei Prefectures, the Qing court was full of confidence in this conquest, thinking that even if it could not be fully meritorious, but it could also frustrate the spirit of overseas Chinese, that had thought that in just a few days, the situation had undergone a huge reversal, not the fourth town of Beiyang was wiped out, Duan Qirui did not know whether he was alive or dead, and the volunteers actually killed back in Hebei Province and threatened Baoding again, so the Qing court immediately issued an order to Tie Liang, Liangbi and the two accused the two of being unfavorable in governing the army, neglecting their duties, delaying the military plane, and losing the trust of the imperial court in very harsh terms, and strictly ordered the two to march immediately to stop the attack of the volunteers, otherwise the imperial court will be severely punished.

After receiving the edict from the imperial court, Tie Liang and Liangbi also knew that the current situation was serious, so they hurriedly dispatched troops and ordered the troops of the second and fourth towns of Beiyang to attack again and launch an attack on the Hehu base area, while the two led the first town of Beiyang to rush back to guard Baoding Mansion.

Tie Liang and Liangbi thought that attacking the base of the Volunteers would inevitably be strongly resisted by the Volunteers, and on the way to the last march, the two of them had been a little frightened by the Volunteers' harassment tactics, not to mention the lessons of Duan Qirui, so that the dangerous things would be handed over to the second and fourth towns of Beiyang to do, and the two led the troops to retreat to Baoding, in fact, they were far away from the battlefield, in order to protect themselves, because after the second and fourth towns launched an attack, the Volunteers would inevitably return to the division to rescue, so that Baoding would not have anything to do.

Although the two of them had a good calculation, the development of the situation did not go as the two expected, first of all, Wang Yingkai, the commander of the second town, and Wu Fengling, the commander of the fourth town, did not carry out their orders. After all, Duan Qirui's lesson is too profound, and the two of them can't help but be affected, so at this time, they dare to attack the river and lake stronghold again? Moreover, people with a discerning eye can see it, Tie Liang and Liangbi hid in Baoding, but they let themselves fight hard with the volunteers, and even sent them to death, and no one would do it. So both of them agreed verbally, but in fact they did not move.

The Volunteers concentrated the strength of three divisions, set up an ambush in Xinle County, about 30 kilometers away from Baoding Prefecture, and severely damaged the first town of Beiyang under the command of Tieliang and Liangbi, killing more than 6,000 Qing troops and capturing more than 15,000 people, and Tieliang and Liangbi fled to Zhengding Mansion with only a few hundred people. The Volunteers took advantage of the situation to continue to march, and captured Zhaozhou Mansion, Hejian Mansion and Baoding Mansion in one fell swoop.

The loss of Baoding Mansion, the Qing court was shaken, because Baoding is the southern gateway of Beijing, the volunteers can drive straight into the circle of Beijing, is it possible that the Gengzi Revolution 6 years ago will be repeated again?

And Cixi was also full of regret and hatred in her heart, regretting how she had been so confused for a moment that she had even provoked a war against overseas Chinese, so how could the overseas Chinese be easy to provoke? The Eight-Nation Coalition was not their opponent, and Japan and Russia were also defeated by them, and that was something that the Qing court could deal with? He is now over 70 years old, and he still has a few days to live? I hate those Manchu nobles, if they hadn't instigated them in their ears, they wouldn't have been confused, it turned out that they wanted to use the Manchu nobles to restrain the ministers of the Han nationality, but unfortunately these people were really muddy and couldn't support the wall, they would only fight for power and profit, and they didn't have much ability, but they had a lot of random ideas, how could they not produce talents like Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang among the Manchus, even if it was a Yuan Shikai.

Thinking of Yuan Shikai, Cixi's heart couldn't help but move, now this situation can be used to enable Yuan Shikai to try, anyway, at this time, he can only be a dead horse as a live horse doctor, and anyway, Yuan Shikai is stronger than Tie Liang and Liangbi, so the Qing court issued an order on the one hand to transfer the fifth and sixth towns of Beiyang to immediately rush to Beijing, and on the other hand, it issued an order to Yuan Shikai to return to Beijing immediately to resume his post, in fact, Yuan Shikai was asked to take up the task of defending Beijing. At the same time, the Qing court also asked the embassies of various countries for help, hoping that the ministers of various countries could deal with the Qing court.

Everything else is easy to do. Wu Changchun, the commander of the fifth town of Beiyang, and Wang Shizhen, the commander of the sixth town, did not hesitate at all after receiving the order from the Qing court, and immediately led the army to Beijing, the fifth town was stationed in Zhuozhou, and the sixth town was stationed in Bazhou to defend Beijing, while the ministers of various countries suggested to the Qing court to negotiate with the East China government as soon as possible, and recommended the negotiator to the Qing court, Yuan Shikai.

After receiving the edict from the Qing court, Yuan Shikai actually folded up and claimed that he was now seriously ill and bedridden, unable to serve as a director, so he was not competent, and asked the court to choose another virtuous.

In fact, after Yuan Shikai became ill, he had been living with the ministers of various countries, and proposed to the ministers of various countries that the Qing court's conquest and suppression had basically failed, and the only way now was to negotiate with the East China government to restore peace, otherwise the overseas Chinese really invaded Beijing and drove away Cixi Guangxu, which was unfavorable to all countries, and said that he had a way to get the East China government to stop the war.

The ministers of various countries were very appreciative of Yuan Shikai's suggestion, because they did not expect that the Qing court had been corrupted to such an extent, and the new army, which had been trained for 4 or 5 years, could not even defeat a subsidiary army of the East China government, so they could only make peace with the East China government, otherwise the East China government really captured Beijing and obtained the Qing court, which was indeed unfavorable to all countries. As a result, the ministers of various countries promised that they would make suggestions to the Qing court.

But Yuan Shikai refused the Qing court's recruitment, on the one hand, it was to put Cixi in the army, because Yuan Shikai's heart was also bitter, to say that he has always been respectful to the old lady in the past few years, and he has never been disrespectful, and he is also conscientious to the court, and there is no merit and hard work, but the old lady idles herself for no reason, and even connived at Tie Liang and Liangbi to seize their military power, at that time, I didn't expect to have today. Since it's the old lady's turn to beg herself, why don't you take the opportunity to put on a show?

After receiving Yuan Shikai's excerpt, Cixi was almost so angry that she scolded, of course she could see that Yuan Shikai was calling out the imperial court! Although the Great Qing Kingdom had fallen to this point, there had never been a minister who dared to be so disrespectful to the imperial court; Zeng Guofan had 300,000 elite Hunan troops in his hands; Li Hongzhang was even sitting on the Huai Army and the Beiyang Naval Division, both of which could be regarded as power-leaning dynasties, but both of them were loyal to the imperial court, respectful and good, and respected the appointment of the imperial court, and never used their power to blackmail the imperial court. What kind of thing are you, Yuan Shikai, your power is far inferior to Zeng and Li, and you dare to take it, is it difficult to think that the imperial court really does not have Yuan Shikai, but it is just a matter of negotiating peace with overseas Chinese, this is not a difficult thing, and it is really no one in the imperial court.

So Cixi immediately ordered Zhang Zhidong to negotiate with the minister and go to Qingdao to negotiate peace with overseas Chinese. At the same time, Cixi also made up her mind that after the end of this peace meeting, she must clean up Yuan Shikai and warn others.

Yuan Shikai learned that the Qing court appointed Zhang Zhidong to negotiate the minister, he couldn't help but look up to the sky and laugh, there were staff around him to ask why, Yuan Shikai said: "Zhang Zhidong has a good reputation, likes to be famous, cherishes feathers, but has no burden, how can he do the negotiation of peace, the imperial court to Zhang Zhidong as an envoy to negotiate with overseas Chinese, will not succeed, and when Zhang Zhidong's negotiation fails, it will be my day." ”

It turned out that after Yuan Shikai refused the Qing court's recruitment on the grounds of serious illness, he was indeed a little worried, afraid that he had gone too far, and if the court sent someone else to handle the peace negotiations, then he would have no future in the future. But knowing that the candidate sent by the imperial court was Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai was also completely relieved. Because this negotiation with overseas Chinese is absolutely a thankless task, and the final negotiated conditions are definitely unfavorable to the Qing court, to put it bluntly, it is a traitorous treaty, although Zhang Zhidong is as famous as Li Hongzhang, and he can be regarded as a member of the Westernization faction, but he lacks Li Hongzhang's spirit of responsibility, and cherishes his reputation more than Li Hongzhang, so it is definitely not possible for him to be the minister of negotiation, and Yuan Shikai is completely relieved.

In fact, Cixi is indeed no one to send, don't look at Cixi thinking about simplicity, isn't it just to negotiate peace, you can send anyone! But this kind of words is really not something that ordinary people can get, looking at the government and the opposition, there are really few people who win. The Manchu magnates, Cixi has been completely disappointed in them, and it is naturally impossible to entrust them with important tasks, and there are few capable Hanchens, otherwise Cixi will not tolerate Yuan Shikai again and again.

And Zhang Zhidong is the only old minister of the Qing court who has experienced the Tongzhi center, has qualifications, prestige, and he still has some friendship with overseas Chinese, so Cixi thinks that Zhang Zhidong is the most suitable person to negotiate peace with overseas Chinese in addition to Yuan Shikai.

After receiving the appointment from the imperial court, Zhang Zhidong also smiled bitterly, although he did have some friendship with overseas Chinese, but in the past few years, Yuan Shikai represented the Qing court to negotiate with the East China government, Zhang Zhidong did not participate, so his friendship with overseas Chinese has also weakened a lot, and this kind of negotiation, it is useless to talk about personal friendship, and the imperial court is forcing itself to be the second Li Hongzhang! When the Qing court was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang went to Maguan to negotiate peace and signed the [Treaty of Shimonoseki] came back, and it turned out that Li Hongzhang was a traitor pointed out by thousands of people across the country, and the court did not say a fair word for Li Hongzhang.

However, now the work of negotiating peace has really fallen on Zhang Zhidong's head, but Zhang Zhidong has never thought of resigning and refusing to resign, after all, Zhang Zhidong is now Zhang Zhongtang, and this is also the position that Zhang Zhidong has been pursuing.