Three days later, Zhang Zhidong entered the palace, secretly met with Cixi and Guangxu, and presented the results of his negotiations with Britain and France.

Zhang Zhidong and Britain and France negotiated a total of two plans, one is that the Qing court and East China ** form a coalition**, implement the constitutional system, and discuss the distribution of power with the East China Political Consultative Conference, but considering that East China is now strong and the Qing court is in a weak position, the result of power distribution is definitely unfavorable to the Qing court; the second is to divide the territory of China equally, with the Yangtze River as the boundary, all the land north of the Yangtze River will be ceded to East China**, and the Qing court will move the capital to the cities in the south, and then the two sides will sign a peace treaty under the witness of various countries.

In fact, these two proposals were discussed by Yuan Shikai with other countries, and then forwarded to the British and French ministers, who put forward them to the Qing court. It turned out that after Yuan Shikai went south to take over as the governor of Liangjiang, with the support of various countries, on the one hand, he quickly stabilized the situation in Jiangnan, and on the other hand, he handled the relationship with East China, so Yuan Shikai also sat firmly in the position of governor of Liangjiang, and began to recruit troops and expand the army.

However, the governor of Liangjiang actually governs three provinces, but in the hands of Yuan Shikai, only one province of Jiangxi, half of Anhui and half of Jiangsu Province, and the other half of Anhui and half of Jiangsu Province are all in the hands of East China, which is equivalent to a third of the territory and population. This is very unfavorable to Yuan Shikai's expansion of the army, although he has financial support from various countries, but there is another important condition for the expansion of the army, that is, the population, and the loss of about one-third of the population, of course, will cause a lot of obstacles to the expansion of the army.

But it is also impossible to regain the lost territory from East China, not only Yuan Shikai does not dare to start a war against East China, but other countries will not support him to do so. And even if he regained the lost territory of the Liangjiang Governor, Yuan Shikai only occupied three provinces, and it was okay to divide one side, but it was impossible to control the entire south and achieve the goal of competing with East China.

And at this time, the Qing court was still there, and it was impossible for Yuan Shikai to rely on force to capture the territory of other governors in the south, so although Yuan Shikai had not yet reached the bottleneck of development, if he was only trapped in the territory of the governor of Liangjiang, the space for development would be limited after all, and it would be too late to wait until the Qing court was destroyed by East China.

In fact, when Yuan Shikai went south, he thought about this problem, but at that time, he mainly considered leaving Beijing, a place of right and wrong, so as not to accompany the Qing court to be martyred, so he didn't think much about other things. Now that Yuan Shikai has gained a firm foothold in the south, he should also consider his own development issues. Countries also hope that Yuan Shikai can control the south as soon as possible, so that countries can have the capital to bargain with East China.

So after several consultations, everyone agreed that if Yuan Shikai wants to control the entire south, at least most of the south, the best and fastest way is to borrow the name of the Qing court, of course, the Qing court will not directly order Yuan Shikai to hand over the other provinces in the south to Yuan Shikai for control, but Yuan Shikai's staff Yang Du immediately gave him a suggestion: coerce the Son of Heaven to order the candidates. That is, using the threat of East China ** as an excuse, he tried to persuade the Qing court to move the capital to Nanjing, so that the imperial court would reach Yuan Shikai's territory, wouldn't it be at the mercy of Yuan Shikai?

Although Yuan Shikai has not read any books seriously, he is very clear about the principles and operations of coercing the Son of Heaven to order the candidates, after all, [Romance of the Three Kingdoms] has been read, and he has read it more than once, so after listening to Yang Du's suggestion, although Yuan Shikai is a little tempted, he is also very clear that once he does this, it will be the contemporary Cao Cao. In this era, Cao Cao is not a positive character, and there is no whitewashing of the true temperament of the slaughter of the city. Although Yuan Shikai doesn't mind being a contemporary Cao Cao, he can't help but worry about whether he can be Cao Cao!

Yuan Shikai thought about it for three days and three nights, but he was still a little hesitant, and at this time, East China launched a war against Mongolia and captured Kulun, which happened to be a good excuse to suggest that the Qing court move the capital, so Yuan Shikai finally made up his mind, such a good opportunity, how to fight.

So Yuan Shikai immediately explained his plan to the representatives of Britain and France, and received strong support from the two countries, because Britain and France also had this plan, and thought that the Qing court might as well cede all the land in the north to East China and move the court to the south. This can better concentrate forces, after all, the forces in East China are basically in the north, and the Qing court can't hold the north at all, and after East China gets the territory of the north, it will take at least 3 or 5 years, or even longer to stabilize and develop, after all, compared with the south of China, the society and economy of the north are poorer and more backward, and East China wants to boast that it is different from the Qing court, and naturally it takes more effort to transform and develop the social economy of the north, which not only requires more time, but also more manpower and material resources.

The society in southern China is more civilized and the economy is more developed, so the Qing court ceded all the land in the north to East China, which not only got rid of a big burden, but also won more time for itself to integrate and prepare, and of course more time for other countries, after all, most of the interests of countries in China are in the south.

Yuan Shikai's suggestion can be said to coincide with Britain and France, so after several rounds of consultations between the three parties, a complete set of plans was finally formulated. First of all, Yuan Shikai proposed that the Qing court immediately negotiate peace with East China on the grounds of the fall of Mongolia, and then Britain and France also gathered ministers from various countries to make similar proposals to the Qing court to endorse Yuan Shikai.

If it was before the Mongol War, Yuan Shikai's excerpt would have caused an uproar in the Qing court, but in East China, he had captured Kulun, and Jebtsundamba VIII, whether voluntarily or forced, had publicly announced his separation from the Qing court and surrendered to East China. Attacking the Qing court is already imminent, either at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year, if at this time, if it can successfully negotiate peace with East China, at least it can make the Qing court survive for a few more years.

However, Yuan Shikai's cautious thinking was not unclear to no one, so when Zhang Zhidong negotiated with the British and French ministers, he also deliberately added a clause: What if the capital is not moved south? The British and French ministers had no choice but to give a proposal to 'form a coalition, implement the constitutional system, and discuss the distribution of power with the East China Political Consultative Conference,' but he repeatedly stressed that such a result would certainly be unfavorable to the Qing court.

After listening to Zhang Zhidong's reply, Cixi turned her head and asked Guangxu: "Emperor, what do you see!"

Guangxu pondered for a moment and said: "If you can form a union with East China** and implement the constitutional system, it is acceptable, but I am afraid of losing the orthodoxy of the imperial court, and moving the capital to the south is to lose the foundation of the ancestors, not to mention that those who have moved south since ancient times have no hope of recovering the country, so it is indeed difficult to choose." ”

Cixi said: "No matter how difficult it is, you have to choose one, it's better than our two sitting here waiting for death, Zhang Zhidong, what is the attitude of foreigners?"

Zhang Zhidong said: "Back to the Queen Mother, the foreigners advocate moving the capital. ”

Cixi snorted and said, "Move the capital, I'm afraid this is Yuan Shikai's idea." ”

Zhang Zhidong said: "Returning to the Queen Mother, whether this is Yuan Shikai's idea or not, but the risk of moving the capital to the south should always be smaller." ”

Guangxu frowned slightly, and said, "How can you see it!"

Zhang Zhidong said: "Now the overseas Chinese are strong, the imperial court is weak, once the formation of a coalition **, the implementation of the constitutional system, I am afraid that the power is all owned by the overseas Chinese, and the queen mother, the emperor's safety, all in the thought of the overseas Chinese; ”

Cixi said: "Zhang Zhidong, so you also advocate moving the capital south." ”

Zhang Zhidong said: "Back to the Queen Mother, this matter is related to the safety of the society, the court, the Queen Mother, and the emperor, and the minister just stated the pros and cons, but he didn't dare to make a decision, everything was determined by the Queen Mother and the Emperor." ”

Guangxu hesitated for a moment and said: "I think that if the imperial court merges with East China** and changes to a constitutional system, with its own constitutional constraints, it will be to give all the power of the court to overseas Chinese, and they may not harm the Queen Mother and me." Speaking of this, Guangxu peeked at Cixi again, and saw that she didn't mean to stop herself from talking, so he continued: "At that time, each should fulfill its responsibilities and implement its own government, and it will not be a feasible way to do it, but once the capital is moved to the south, the country will be separated from the north and south, and sooner or later the war will start again, and the lives will be ruined, which may not be a good thing." ”

Zhang Zhidong said: "What the emperor said is extremely true, everything is judged by the queen mother and the emperor. ”

Guangxu turned his head to look at Cixi and said, "What does the Queen Mother think?" ”

In fact, from Guangxu's heart, he did not want to move the capital south, but preferred to form a coalition. Because after the Wuxu Reform, as well as the report submitted by the five ministers after returning from overseas investigation, now Guangxu has a certain understanding of the constitutional system, although the constitutional state, the power of the monarch will be greatly weakened, and it will be subject to the Congress, but the throne is protected by the Constitution, and although the relationship between Guangxu and Cixi has eased now, the mustard between mother and son has not been eliminated, and the power of the court is still firmly controlled by Cixi, Guangxu is still a puppet, and has no power.

But Guangxu thinks that instead of being the puppet of Cixi, it is better to be the puppet of East China, after all, following East China, at least in foreign wars and exchanges, he will not suffer losses in foreign wars and exchanges, will not cede land and seek peace, and there is light in his own face! And after going south, he is still a puppet emperor, he still has no power, and he has to be angry at home and abroad, so it is naturally better to stay and merge well with East China.