After receiving the decree and sending away the eunuch who delivered the decree, Yuan Shikai sat in his study, his mood was also fluctuating, as if he had returned to the night in the Wuxu period. It was that night that Yuan Shikai made a decision that would change his life, to tell Rong Lu and betray the reformers.

Of course, the failure of the reform faction during the Wuxu period actually has little to do with Yuan Shikai's whistleblowing behavior, even if there is no Yuan Shikai's whistleblowing, the reformers are doomed to failure, so it is not true that Yuan Shikai's whistleblowing led to the failure of the Wuxu reform, but for Yuan Shikai personally, this whistleblowing operation made him gain the trust of Cixi, and since then he has been increasing his official position all the way to Lu, although he is often beaten by Cixi, but on the whole it is still rising and rising step by step.

However, at that time, it was not difficult to make the choice of whistleblowing, because at that time, as long as anyone with a little brains would choose between the Empress Dowager Cixi and the reformers, Bi Jing's reformists had almost no chance of winning, even if Yuan Shikai fully supported the side of the reformers, the chance of victory was very small, so as long as they were people with a right mind, they would not fall to the side of the reformers. And now the results also prove that Yuan Shikai's original decision was correct.

But this time Yuan Shikai didn't have so much confidence, and he didn't know if his choice was right or wrong this time. Therefore, at this time, Yuan Shikai's emotions were naturally difficult to calm down.

Just when Yuan Shikai wanted to come to his senses, his family came to report that it was the British Minister Zhu Erdian asking to see him.

When Yuan Shikai heard this, he couldn't help but feel refreshed, and hurriedly said, "Please, please." As he spoke, he called his family: "Take out the jar of Huangshan Maojian that I collected and make tea." After finishing speaking, Yuan Shikai personally walked out of the study and came to the eaves at the door of the room to greet him.

After a short time, I saw my family leading the British minister to the Qing court, Zhu Erdian, to walk in. Yuan Shikai immediately walked down the steps, stretched out his hand to shake Zhu Erdian, and said, "What kind of wind blew Mr. Minister here, Mr. Minister has always been good." ”

At this time, Zhu Erdian has been in China for more than 10 years, not only can speak very fluent Chinese, but also has a considerable understanding of Chinese people, customs, historical allusions, etc., can be regarded as an out-and-out China expert, at this time also smiled: "Thanks to Lord Yuan's blessing, everything is fine, and Lord Lao Yuan has a memory." ”

Yuan Shikai said with a smile: "This is not the place to talk, go, go to my desk and sit down to talk, I just got a pot of good tea some time ago, please Mr. Minister to compensate." ”

Zhu Erdian also smiled: "Oh! Then I will have to disturb Lord Yuan." ”

So Yuan Shikai led Zhu Erdian to his study, the two sat down separately, the servant served tea, Zhu Erdian picked up the teacup, took a sip, and was also amazed, "It's really good tea." ”

Yuan Shikai said with a smile: "If Mr. Minister likes it, bring some back later, and slowly repay it." ”

Zhu Erdian said: "Then how embarrassing?"

Yuan Shikai said: "It's just some tea, why worry about it." ”

Zhu Erdian said: "Even if Lord Yuan is gracious, I will be disrespectful." ”

After the two of them exchanged polite words, Yuan Shikai waved his hand to let the people withdraw, and arranged for two henchmen to guard the door, and then said to Zhu Erdian: "Mr. Minister, I came to visit the cold house today, I don't know what to see!"

Zhu Erdian said: "I don't dare to see the teaching, I am here to congratulate Lord Yuan this time, congratulations to the Governor of Liangjiang for his transfer, and leave this place of non-compliance, in the words of your country, it is 'break the jade cage and fly the colorful phoenix, and suddenly open the golden lock and go to the dragon', and from then on, the adults can 'leap with the fish in the wide sea, and let the birds fly in the sky'." ”

Yuan Shikai also laughed and said: "To borrow the good words of Mr. Minister, in fact, I still want to thank Mr. Minister? If it wasn't for Mr. Minister to wake me up, I wouldn't have thought of this trick as the best policy." ”

Zhu Erdian said with a smile: "Shen Sheng died inside, and his ears were at peace outside, in fact, with the wisdom of Lord Yuan, how could he not think of this? ”

Yuan Shikai also stroked his palms and laughed, and said, "Mr. Minister is too polite. Then his face straightened, and he said in a low voice: "I have already been transferred out now, but what about the promise of your country?"

Zhu Erdian said: "Please rest assured that Lord Yuan has already been arranged, the countries have united with the merchants of the provinces to raise 3 million taels of silver, just wait for Lord Yuan to take office in Jinling, first provide Lord Yuan with 1.5 million taels of silver start-up capital, of which 1 million taels will be used for disaster relief, merchants from all countries will also try their best to help adults raise disaster relief materials, the other 500,000 taels will be used by adults to pay for military expenses, and the remaining 1.5 million taels will also be paid to adults in the future." Saying that, Zhu Erdian opened his briefcase, took out a check from it, handed it to Yuan Shikai, and said, "This is a check for 200,000 taels of silver, which can be regarded as paid to Lord Yuan in advance." ”

Yuan Shikai couldn't help but be overjoyed, and hurriedly reached out to take the check, and said, "Thank you, Mr. Minister." ”

Zhu Erdian waved his hand and said, "Lord Yuan doesn't have to thank me, this money is not from me, in fact, I can only be regarded as a middleman, but after Lord Yuan takes office in Jinling, everything needs to meet Lord Yuan." ”

Yuan Shikai nodded and said, "Naturally, naturally, Yuan should do his best to ensure that Jiangnan is safe and sound." ”

It turned out that Cixi had a thousand calculations, but there was a mistake in Baimi, she only cared about calculating whether Yuan Shikai would fall to East China**, but she didn't expect Yuan Shikai to collude with foreigners.

Of course, this can't be completely blamed on Cixi, firstly, because she is old, and it is inevitable that there will be omissions in her calculations, and secondly, because after the Gengzi State Change, the behavior of foreigners in China has also converged a lot, and they are no longer so high-flying, domineering, and their attitude towards the Qing court is also a lot more polite. Consulting the new policy and so on, so that the Qing court was quite flattered, although Cixi was still wary of foreigners in her heart, but when calculating Yuan Shikai's transfer, she still ignored the factor of foreigners.

However, countries to the Qing court, to show goodwill, help, of course, not out of good intentions, but hope to make the Qing court cheer up, because all countries know that if East China rules the whole of China, it is definitely not a good thing for all countries, regardless of the loss of interests in China, the geopolitical loss is extremely huge, so all countries hope that the Qing court can take on the heavy responsibility of blocking East China's unification of China, and countries are also willing to provide necessary help to the Qing court, even if the Qing court cannot stop East China , but it can't let East China smoothly control the whole of China, at least it will create some trouble for East China, and it can also be used as a bargaining chip for countries to negotiate with East China in the future.

After East China sent personnel to the disaster, Britain, France, the United States and other countries realized that East China was taking the opportunity of disaster relief to win the hearts and minds of the people, and at the same time expand their influence in the provinces of the Yangtze River Basin, so they also suggested to the Qing court that disaster relief should be organized as soon as possible to compete with East China for the hearts of the people. There are still certain advantages, if you can take the opportunity of disaster relief and harvest a group of people's hearts, you can also let the Qing court rule last a few more years, which can also give countries more time to arrange ways to deal with East China.

At the same time, the countries also indicated to the Qing court that they could provide the Qing court with low-interest loans without any conditions attached to them for disaster relief, and of course the use of this loan needs to be supervised by the countries and earmarked for special purposes. Because the countries knew what the temperament of the officials of the Qing court was, and if the disaster relief money reached them, if they were not supervised, I am afraid that they would be plucked by the geese, and half of it would fall to the real disaster relief, and they could thank God for thanking the people.

However, the Qing court was not interested in this suggestion of various countries, first, disaster relief is not an easy thing, and it may not have much credit if it is done well, and if it is done badly, it will be responsible, not to mention competing with East China; second, the Qing court is still quite wary of foreigners, and foreigners' loans are not so easy to get, even if there are no other additional conditions, but the loan must be repaid after all, but this loan is designated by foreigners to be used for disaster relief, and it is not to train troops and run foreign affairs, what will the Qing court pay back in the future? What's more, foreigners also have to supervise the use of this loan, which must be used for disaster relief, which also makes many officials who originally supported disaster relief also feel cold. In addition, a group of officials believed that if they did not visit, they would let East China go to disaster relief in order to consume the manpower and material resources of East China, which was also beneficial to the Qing court. So why did the Qing court rush to provide disaster relief? Therefore, in the end, the Qing court politely rejected the suggestions of various countries.

The attitude of the Qing court also made the countries very disappointed, it seems that the Qing court is really mud can not support the wall, so the ministers of various countries together made an assessment of the situation in China, and agreed that East China ** will start a war against the Qing court next year, that is, in 1908, attack Beijing, at the latest will not exceed 1909, and with the strength of the Qing court, it is simply impossible to resist the attack of East China, within 1 month after the war, the People's Army will inevitably capture Beijing, and it is expected that within 6-12 months, it will occupy the entire northern region.

In other words, now the Qing court actually only has 1-2 years left to live. Therefore, it is impossible to expect the Qing court to be able to stop East China**, or to create trouble for East China**.

However, because China's territory is too large, and East China's foundation in China is not deep after all, after occupying the north, East China will inevitably stop attacking and stabilize its rule in the north first. And all countries should use this time to restart the stove in southern China, support a regime different from the Qing court, and contend with East China, so that China can maintain the situation of confrontation between the north and the south, so that it is the most beneficial situation for all countries.

And in this way, it is first necessary to make sure that there is a strong leader in the south to be able to take on this important task, so all countries recommend it, and this person must be Yuan Shikai.