"Emperor Qi, Queen Mother, the Military Aircraft Department just received a telegram from the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion yesterday, Anqing Mansion has been broken by the puppet rebel army, Governor Enming committed suicide and martyrdom, and the whole province of Anhui has been captured by the puppet rebel army. ”

"What? It's only been a few days, Anhui Province has been occupied by the pseudo-counterattack, Enming committed suicide and martyred the country, what about Duanfang? He is the governor of Liangjiang, isn't Anhui his jurisdiction? What did Duanfang do?"

"Returning to the emperor, Duanfang, the governor of Liangjiang, and Zhao Erxun, the governor of Lianghu, jointly asked the imperial court to rescue troops for reinforcements. ”

"What? When the puppet rebel attacked Anhui, what was the Duan side doing? Isn't there a new army in Hubei? Why didn't Zhao Erxun go to the rescue of Anhui, and now they all came to the imperial court to ask for reinforcements, what is the use of the imperial court raising them?"

Hearing Guangxu's furious anger, the ministers were silent. I thought in my heart, if the imperial court had removed Enming earlier and calmed down the anger of East China, the result might not be so, now that East China has turned its face, who has a way to respond?

It turned out that after Enming sent a fleet to intercept the transport fleet of East China, East China reported through the news media, which caused an uproar in public opinion for a while, and newspapers in various parts of the south published opinion articles one after another, accusing Anhui Governor Enming of ignoring the suffering of the victims and sabotaging the disaster relief operations in East China, and under the deliberate guidance of East China, he even pointed the finger at the Qing court, and severely criticized the Qing court for basically doing nothing in this flood and ignoring the safety of the victims.

The governors of the provinces along the Yangtze River also wrote to the Qing court, impeaching Enming, the governor of Anhui, and demanding that the Qing court remove Enming from his official position. In fact, the governors of the provinces have made a group of impeachments this time, because the drunkards do not mean to drink, first, it turns out that these governors and governors have reached a subtle tacit understanding with East China, and they will not obstruct the disaster relief operations in East China in the provinces, and even support them in secret, and East China will not invade the localities, mainly the prefectures and counties, so that the provinces can use the power of East China to calm down the disaster and appease the people, while also maintaining local control. It can be said that this is the best choice for the provincial officials at present. But Enming broke this tacit understanding and broke the rules of the rivers and lakes, of course, he would be rejected by others, and took this opportunity to squeeze him out.

On the other hand, it is also a confrontation with the imperial court, because during the Gengzi State Change, the southeastern provinces formed a southeast mutual insurance, ensuring that the southeast provinces were not damaged during the Gengzi State Change, and after the end of the Gengzi State Change, the Qing court also recognized the legitimacy of the southeast mutual insurance, which also had a certain independent status in the system of the Qing court. Even if the group of governors who participated in the Southeast Mutual Insurance either died, such as Li Hongzhang and Liu Kunyi, or left office, such as Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai, the new governors basically accepted this reality. Behind them, it was the support of the gentry and the industrial and commercial class of the southeastern provinces, so that the southeast mutual guarantee had material security, and there was also the recognition of the great powers.

Now these basic conditions are still there, and they cannot be solved by changing a few officials, not to mention that the governor does not want his power to be greater, so after taking office, intentionally or unintentionally, he also indulges the autonomous status of the provinces, and he also has a greater degree of freedom. Of course, after the Gengzi State Change, the Qing court also acted much more cautiously, after all, under normal circumstances, it would not force the actions of the southeastern provinces, and could only be treated with a consultative attitude, and the two sides really maintained this balanced situation.

And this time on the disaster relief incident, the Qing court frequently put pressure on the provinces in the Yangtze River basin, asking them to expel the disaster relief personnel in East China, when the provinces adopted a perfunctory attitude, the Qing court instead issued a strict order to the provinces to do so, the language was very harsh, and did not care about the attitude of the provinces, which broke the balance between the imperial court and the southeastern provinces, so the governors of the provinces also took this opportunity to play together, play the Hai Enming, but also give the court a little color, to the court to express local dissatisfaction.

On the one hand, he issued an edict to reward Enming, saying that he was loyal to the imperial court, and although he was defeated, he was still honored, so he was not punished, and on the other hand, he severely criticized other governors and ministers, neglecting the orders of the imperial court, neglecting their duties, and being disloyal to the monarch. Because he was the governor of Liangjiang, Duan Fang, the reproach was still severe, and Duan Fang was temporarily appointed to wait for the court to deal with it.

It turns out that the attitude of the Qing court towards East China ** has also changed, and it still maintains a superficial harmony, but it drags on, but after East China ** announced that it was the goal of overthrowing the Qing court, the two sides also completely tore their faces, and the Qing court also realized that it could not be dragged on, so it no longer endured, and simply broke the jar and fell, and called East China ** "pseudo-rebel" in the title, which is because East China ** is a descendant of China, and the Qing court thinks that it is a false name for a descendant of China, so this title is made.

However, the Qing court did not dare to take the initiative to provoke East China, so it thought of letting the provincial officials in the Yangtze River basin go against East China, and then there was an order to expel the disaster relief personnel in East China, which also did not want the provinces and East China to be obscured.

It's a pity that among the provinces in the Yangtze River Basin, only Anhui Governor Enming listened to the orders of the imperial court, while the other provinces were still perfunctory, so the Qing court was also quite annoyed, and did not care about the balance with the provinces in the Yangtze River Basin, so it issued a strict rebuke to the governors, and even dismissed the governor of Liangjiang from his post.

Now after all, it is not the Gengzi period, when Beijing Chengpo, the emperor and the empress dowager hunt in the north, take care of themselves, and in the southeast there are Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong three important ministers to preside over the overall situation, in order to organize the southeast mutual insurance, but now these conditions are not available, so it is obviously impossible to carry out the southeast mutual insurance, of course, no one wants to engage in the southeast mutual insurance now, just want to maintain the current situation of strong autonomy of the provinces in the Yangtze River basin.

However, the officials who can mix with the governor and the governor are not ordinary people, although the imperial court is now violent, and a payment is either obeying the orders of the imperial court, or it is a rebellious attitude, but the provinces of the Yangtze River basin Bi Jing is still beyond the reach of the whip, and now Henan Province has been occupied by East China, and the Qing court's control over the south has been further weakened, so the provinces in the Yangtze River basin can also be delayed a little longer, so as to accommodate enough time to carry out action.

And now the governors of the provinces in the Yangtze River basin are not without cards to play, first of all, the gentry and industrial and commercial owners of the provinces do not want to have bad relations with East China, even foreigners want to maintain the current situation, and East China will not sit idly by, so everyone negotiated with each other and decided to simply ignore the imperial court and let the gentry, businessmen and foreigners go to the activities to dredge up and watch the changes.

At this time, after the pacification of the Red Lotus Sect, East China ** immediately waved its army southward and fully captured Anhui Province, it only took 4 or 5 days to fully occupy the entire territory of Anhui Province, where the army went, local officials in Anhui Province either abandoned the city and fled, or surrendered to Wangfeng, only the Anqing Mansion garrisoned by Governor Enming resisted for two days, but it was still broken by the People's Army, and Governor Enming committed suicide with his family when the city was broken.

The governors of the provinces in the Yangtze River valley were also surprised, happy and worried, and they were surprised that the People's Army was so powerful that it had completely occupied Anhui Province in just a few days; they were glad that now East China had really made a move, and it would be up to them to see how the Qing court would deal with it; they were worried that East China would take advantage of the victory and sweep away the provinces in the Yangtze River valley in one fell swoop? So on the one hand, the governors and governors collectively sent an urgent document to the Qing court, asking the Qing court to send troops to rescue them; on the other hand, they contacted East China to understand the East China What is the purpose of sending troops, I can also deal with it.

After receiving the emergency from the provinces, the military aircraft did not dare to slack off, and the next day, the military aircraft department collectively entered the meeting and reported the news to Cixi and Guangxu, and Guangxu suddenly couldn't hold his breath, and the court started a fire.

At this time, Cixi coughed lightly and said, "Your Majesty." ”

Guangxu was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said, "What does the Queen Mother have to say?"

Cixi said: "Now is not the time to get angry, think about how to deal with it." ”

Guangxu hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, the Queen Mother said yes." After hesitating for a moment, he said: "Pseudo-rebellion is so rampant, if the imperial court does not send troops to rescue it, I am afraid that Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan provinces will be difficult to preserve." ”

Cixi sneered and said, "Send troops." Who will lead the army, and from there?"

Guangxu was stunned for a moment, and then remembered that East China had defeated the existence of the four major powers of Britain, France, Japan, and Russia, and the Qing court wanted to start a war with East China, didn't it take eggs to touch stones? But East China ** occupied Anhui, and the Qing court couldn't ignore it, so he said: "Is there no way for us?"

Cixi was silent for a moment, and suddenly said, "Zhang Zhidong, what do you say you should do now?" Cixi directly named Zhang Zhidong, and did not call Prince Qing Prince Yixuan, the foreman of the Military Aircraft Department, because Cixi knew very well that Yixuan could mix with the foreman of the Military Aircraft Department, just because of his clan status and good relationship with Cixi, but Yixuan was really incapable, and it was really difficult for him to ask him about this kind of thing, so it was better to ask Zhang Zhidong directly, Bi Jing Zhang Zhidong was the only surviving person among the famous ministers in Tongzhi.

Seeing that Cixi named herself, Zhang Zhidong couldn't help but say, so he said: "The emperor, the queen mother, and the ministers think that the pseudo-rebel army is huge, and they are brave and good at fighting, and the British, French, Japanese, and Russian powers are still invincible, and this sincerity cannot compete with it, and it is still unwise to start a war with the pseudo-rebel, and it is still unwise to do two things as a matter of urgency, one is to appoint important ministers to rush to the south immediately, preside over the overall situation, and coordinate the relationship with the pseudo-rebel; the other is to ask the imperial court to immediately negotiate with the pseudo-rebel in order to seek a policy of peaceful coexistence with the pseudo-rebel. ”