Seeing that the affairs of Qingzhou had been decided, Guangxu also said goodbye to Cixi: "Since the matter is decided, the sons and daughters are also going back to the palace, and the Queen Mother will recuperate in the Summer Palace and return to Beijing as soon as possible." ”

Cixi said: "What's the hurry? There are still Qing Wangye and Zhang Zhidong in Beijing, and if they can't do anything, let them deal with overseas Chinese, after returning to Beijing, the emperor has not been to the Summer Palace? It is not too late to stay in the garden for a few days and then leave." He said to Li Hongzhang and Rong Lu: "It's rare for you to come to the Summer Palace, so it's good to stay together for a few days." ”

Guangxu was stunned, he didn't know what kind of medicine Cixi was selling in this gourd, so he had to let himself stay in the Summer Palace, but Rong Lu said: "Your Majesty, the Queen Mother is right, the overseas Chinese are there, it is enough to have Qing Wang Ye and Zhang Zhidong to send it, the Queen Mother is not in good health, and the Emperor should also stay in the Summer Palace, so that he can serve the Queen Mother sooner or later, maybe the Queen Mother's health is better, and it is better to go back to the palace with the Emperor, isn't it?"

Seeing that Rong Lu said this, Guangxu naturally didn't want to refuse anymore, so he said: "That's the case, Erchen respects his life." ”

So Guangxu immediately wrote an edict and asked people to take it back to the palace and hand it over to Prince Qing, so that they could negotiate with overseas Chinese according to the edict. Cixi ordered people to arrange housing for them to rest. Li Hongzhang and Rong Lu sent people back to Beijing to bring some change of clothes and supplies, although there were many rooms in the Summer Palace and there was no shortage of items, but clothes and personal items still had to be taken from home.

Cixi's interest seemed to be good, and the next day she arranged for everyone to visit the Summer Palace, but while chatting, she kept asking Li Hongzhang about overseas Chinese. Of course, Cixi knew that overseas Chinese were a big problem for the Qing court, and Li Hongzhang should be the person who knew the overseas Chinese best in the imperial court. It's just that the Qing court has been back in Beijing for 5 months, because there are too many things, and Cixi also expressed it, but she didn't expect that something would happen so soon, so Cixi also wanted to take this opportunity to thoroughly understand overseas Chinese.

Li Hongzhang was also prepared for this, so he told Cixi everything he knew, of course, a few more sensitive things were not said, but this is the case, which also gave Cixi and Guangxu a new understanding of the situation of overseas Chinese.

There is a lot of information in it Guangxu is also the first time to hear it, after all, he has been controlled by Cixi before, he has no freedom at all, and he does not even have the power to meet a minister, so he went there to learn about these situations. After listening to Li Hongzhang's speech, Guangxu realized that overseas Chinese were very different from what he imagined, and they would not be loyal to Dachun at all, so it was impossible to rely on overseas Chinese to change their situation.

However, Cixi got a lot more information than Guangxu, she had long concluded that overseas Chinese would not be loyal to the Qing court, but when she heard that overseas Chinese occupied a place, they forcibly took the land of the squire, Cixi still looked down on the overseas Chinese, thinking that their vision was too short-sighted, and they were in a hurry to ask for land and give up just after gaining a foothold, and they were still robbing and grabbing, you must know that the squire is still the cornerstone of the place, and the overseas Chinese have offended the local gentry, how can this last long, so it seems that the overseas Chinese are not afraid.

However, after listening to Li Hongzhang's detailed explanation of the land reform system of overseas Chinese, it turned out that although overseas Chinese forcibly confiscated the land of the local squires, they did not occupy a single acre, but distributed all of them to ordinary people free of charge, and Cixi realized that her previous ideas were very wrong.

Although Cixi did not understand the concepts of emancipating the productive forces, production relations, and land ownership system, she understood one thing she understood was that overseas Chinese were buying people's hearts. Although Cixi still couldn't figure it out, could all the overseas Chinese be upright and gentlemen, and no one wanted to buy land and buy land, but another reason Cixi thought clearly, if the overseas Chinese distributed all the land to the peasants, then these peasants who got the land would definitely support the overseas Chinese with all their hearts, and compared with the vast number of peasants, the local squires were nothing at all? Of course, the two large-scale peasant movements of the Boxer Rebellion knew what a terrible force it was to mobilize all the peasants at once, and the leadership and organizational ability of overseas Chinese were far from being comparable to those of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Zhang Decheng, Cao Futian, and others.

If Cixi still had some confidence in the past, she could deal with overseas Chinese by means of division and disintegration, sand mixing and buying, but now Cixi's confidence has begun to waver, and she instinctively realizes that this time she may not have a way to deal with overseas Chinese.

In addition, Cixi did not fail to think about borrowing the power of foreigners to deal with overseas Chinese, but first, Cixi knew that the power of foreigners was not so easy to borrow, and in the future, she would have to repay the principal with interest; second, listening to Li Hongzhang's lecture, overseas Chinese seem to be fighting fiercely with foreigners, and in addition to Russia, they have commercial contacts with many countries, and not long ago they also engaged in a bidding for building ships, and more than 10 shipyards from Britain, France, the United States, Germany, and Italy have rushed to bid for it, and even each country has moved its consulates in Tianjin to Qingdao, which also shows that the relationship between overseas Chinese and foreigners is very harmonious。

Although Cixi couldn't figure it out that the overseas Chinese defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance, forcibly took over the foreigners' concessions, and collected the foreigners' customs rights, the foreigners didn't seem to remember this grudge at all, but made friends with the overseas Chinese, what is the reason?

But if you can't figure it out, you can't figure it out, but Cixi also secretly decided in her heart that she would try her best not to conflict with overseas Chinese, endure it if she can, and mix it up if she can, anyway, she is almost 70 years old, and she still has a few days to live, as long as she survives until the day she leaves, she doesn't care about the things behind her.

Guangxu, Ronglu, and Li Hongzhang lived in the Summer Palace for three days, and on the morning of the third day, Li Lianying came to report that Prince Su Shanqi, Prince Alcohol Zaifeng, Dorobelle Zaitao, Zaixun, Zhenguo Gong Zaize and others asked to see the Queen Mother and the Emperor at the gate of the Summer Palace.

Cixi snorted and said, "Come in with them." ”

Guangxu looked confused, but Rong Lu and Li Hongzhang exchanged glances with each other, and they tacitly understood each other, this was the real purpose of Cixi leaving them in the Summer Palace. Because as soon as the resolution to deal with Qingzhou is announced, it will definitely cause dissatisfaction among the banner people and come to Cixi for the theory, so instead of staying in Beijing and making a fuss about the flag man theory, it is better to solve it in this Summer Palace, so that it will not cause too much alarm.

These people who came were all members of the Qing court, and they were also a group of upstarts who rose in the Qing court after the Gengzi State Change. In the past 30 years, the largest political faction in the Qing court was the Westernists, so Cixi has been cultivating a political force that can contain the Westerners.

Before the First Sino-Japanese War, Cixi used the Chun School to counteract the Westernists. After the Wuxu coup, the Qing faction was weakened because of its support for Guangxu, so Cixi changed to support the clan, promoted her niece and son-in-law Duanjun Wang Zaiyi, as well as Prince Zhuang Zaixun, Fuguo Gong Zailan and others, and established Zaiyi's son Chuan Jun as the eldest brother. After returning to Beijing, because someone was responsible for the Gengzi State Change, the eldest brother was deposed, and Zaiyi, Zaixun, Zai Lan and others were all cut down, but Cixi promoted a new group of clan personnel.

Prince Su Shanqi is the tenth grandson of Prince Haoge of Suwu, the eldest son of Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, and one of the twelve iron hat kings of the Qing court. Although Cixi did not like Guangxu, she was quite grateful for Guangxu's biological father, the former alcohol prince Yixun's loyalty to herself, so she still promoted Yixun's son, and even personally married Zaifeng to Ronglu's daughter;

These people came to the Summer Palace to rescue Cixi and Guangxu, of course, for Wen Rui's business. Originally, after the excerpts of the traverser were sent to Beijing, these people jumped the highest and screamed the most fiercely, saying that this matter could not be counted, and that overseas Chinese must pay the price to avenge Wenrui and so on.

In fact, they did not want to ask Wen Rui for an explanation, but originally wanted to take this opportunity to restore the power of the Manchurians, but if the imperial court decided that Wen Rui was a rebellion, then how could they take advantage of the situation? Therefore, they hurriedly rushed to the Summer Palace to see Cixi, and they must persuade Cixi to retract her life.

After seeing the ceremony, Shanqi said: "Queen Mother, Wen Rui was clearly framed and killed by overseas Chinese, how could he rebel? Moreover, overseas Chinese are so arrogant and bold, they dare to attack the garrison of the Eight Banners and murder the Lord, the crime is unforgivable, and it must not be lightly punished." ”

Zai Ze said: "Yes, Queen Mother, overseas Chinese are so rampant, if the imperial court does not punish them, there is still a place for our banner people in this world." ”

Zaiyi, Zaixun, and Zailan also spoke, of course, all of them to severely punish overseas Chinese and avenge Wenrui.

Cixi's face sank like water, and she said, "According to your intentions, what should we do?" Shanqi, I will now let the emperor issue an order and let you lead the army to exterminate the overseas Chinese, do you dare to go?"

Shanqi was stunned for a moment and said, "This ......"

Cixi said again: "Zai Ze, the Qingzhou prefect is vacant, you go to be the prefect of Qingzhou, and you just want to compete with overseas Chinese, okay?" Then he pointed at Zaiyi, Zaixun, Zailan and others, and said: "And you, who dares to go to Shandong, tell me directly, and I will make an order immediately." ”

Zai Ze and the others couldn't help but bow their heads, not daring to answer Cixi's words. Don't look at them screaming fiercely, but I know very well in my heart that the imperial court still has the ability to punish overseas Chinese?

Cixi "snorted" again and said, "Why don't you stop talking, don't you want to severely punish overseas Chinese? Why do you ask you to go to Shandong and arrest overseas Chinese, but you don't reply?"

Seeing that several people bowed their heads and stopped talking, Rong Lu also knew that it was time to play the paddock by himself, so that there were steps on both sides, so he said: "Wen Rui is not wronged, is it not clear that the Queen Mother is difficult?" But now that the imperial court has just returned to Beijing, everything is waiting to be revived, how can it be easy to raise troops again, not to mention that the momentum of overseas Chinese is flourishing, and the imperial court has to temporarily avoid the edge, this is a small and unbearable big plan, just wait for the imperial court to recuperate for a few years, and it is not too late to clean up the overseas Chinese after being fully prepared, where do you understand the queen mother's opinion?"

Speaking of which, Shanqi and the others also knew that they could no longer argue, in fact, what Rong Lu said was not unreasonable, at this time, the imperial court really couldn't turn its face with overseas Chinese, so if you insist on it and annoy the Queen Mother, I'm afraid there will be no good results. So I had to retire.