It turned out that Yuan Shikai had been paying attention to the Qing army's attack on the river and lake base area, and learned that the Qing army's three roads were blocked, which also made Yuan Shikai very happy. Yuan Shikai's heart was also quite unhappy, could it be that Duan Qirui had forgotten what he had told him? Therefore, Yuan Shikai immediately wrote a letter to Duan Qirui, reminding Duan Qirui very implicitly, don't forget your own instructions, and play leisurely.

After receiving Yuan Shikai's letter, Duan Qirui also knew that it was almost the same now, if he continued to fight, Yuan Shikai would not be able to pass that level, and Duan Qirui also estimated that his own military exploits were enough, so he could completely guarantee that he would not lose his official position after the war, so he also wanted to find some reason to stop the army, and even retreat.

Just when Duan Qirui prepared a telegram and was about to send it, the court's commendation order was transmitted to Duan Qirui's camp, and Duan Qirui was awarded the title of acting governor of Henan with his meritorious work in suppressing bandits, and was given the name Baturu and a yellow coat.

And after receiving the commendation order from the imperial court, Duan Qirui almost couldn't believe it, his whole mind was blank, and he didn't even know how to deal with the summoned eunuchs and generals when he congratulated him, and he was completely at a loss. Because this is something that Duan Qirui never dreamed of, he actually became a governor?

Now Duan Qirui's official position is the second rank, and the governor is from the second rank, only with the addition of the title of six squires, is the second grade, on the surface, Duan Qirui's current official position is not under the governor, but the commander is a military attaché, the Ming and Qing dynasties are all Wenzun military officials, and the military attache sees that the civil official is actually calculated according to the three grades, of course, the Qing Dynasty has a special case, that is, in the early and middle period of the Qing Dynasty, if it is a Manchu military general, there is still considerable power. But under the usual same conditions, the actual power of the commander is not as good as that of the prefect of the four ranks. Not to mention that the governor is in charge of the political, military, and civil affairs of a province, and is even known as the feudal official, with a high position, so he served as the governor, that is, he was squeezed into the ranks of high-ranking officials, how could he be compared with the commander, and it was no wonder that Duan Qirui was so excited that it was difficult to restrain himself.

And before the governor add the word "acting", is the meaning of the agency, usually used for officials with insufficient qualifications to serve as governors, generally in office for 1 or 2 years, as long as there is no mistake in office, the word "acting" will be removed, when Yuan Shikai served as the governor of Shandong, also added the word "acting", but Yuan Shikai was in office for less than 2 years, and experienced the Gengzi national change, so just removed the word "acting", he was promoted to the governor of Zhili. And "give the name Baturu, reward the yellow coat" are honorary titles, although there is no real power, but it is also a very high honor, because it is a yellow coat, generally left at home as an heirloom.

Of course, with Duan Qirui's qualifications now, let alone serving as a governor, even the acting governor is far from qualified, but now most of Henan is not under the control of the Qing court, so the governor of Henan is actually just a fictitious position, but this is also a signal to Duan Qirui, if Duan Qirui can fight bravely, make great contributions to the extermination of the river and lake base areas, and finally recover the entire Henan Province, then Duan Qirui's Henan governor can also turn from virtual to real and become an actual official position.

However, Duan Qirui finally had some self-control, and hurriedly sealed 2,000 taels of silver and gave it to the summoned eunuch as Xie Yi, and sent the eunuch away first. The eunuch was also very happy to receive the money, and said a few words, "The grace of the saint is vast, the queen mother is merciful, General Duan must not forget, he should fight hard and return to the court as soon as possible, so as to live up to the love words of the queen mother and the emperor." ”

These words of the eunuch reminded Duan Qirui that it seemed that he could not stop the army, but should continue to march and return to Defu to suppress this gang of brave bandits.

Duan Qirui is full of confidence that he can break through the Guide Mansion, because of the battle in the past 10 days, Duan Qirui thinks that the Volunteers are just relying on their familiarity with geography and good at sneak attacks, and the frontal battle is not their opponent at all, as long as they are carefully arranged and cautiously march, it is not difficult to deal with the sneak attack tactics of the Volunteers, so it is completely possible to break through the Guide Mansion this way. And when he broke through the Guide Mansion and suppressed this gang of brave bandits, the governor of Henan was naturally solid.

Thinking of this, Duan Qirui couldn't help but feel a little fluttering, he was already among the high-ranking officials of the Qing court, although he could not be said to be on an equal footing with Yuan Shikai, but it was also close at hand, and there was no need to look up to the mountains. However, at this time, Qi Rui remembered that Yuan Shikai didn't write to himself, so that he could save his strength and stop attacking, what should he do. Yuan Shikai's attitude must not be underestimated, firstly, Yuan Shikai has the grace of knowing himself, and he also married his adopted daughter to himself, of course, he can't stop Yuan Shikai just because he wants to be a high-ranking official; second, Yuan Shikai is also an important minister of the imperial court, even if he becomes the governor of Henan, he may not be far from the same in terms of rank and rank, but in terms of power, he is still far from the same, so he still needs Yuan Shikai's support in the future, and he must not spoil the relationship with Yuan Shikai. We must think of a foolproof strategy, so that Yuan Shikai can't find fault with himself.

Of course, at this time, Duan Qirui had not realized that he had not considered following Yuan Shikai's instructions to stop the attack, and was only thinking about how to make Yuan Shikai accept his meritorious service without offending Yuan Shikai, but he did not expect that these two things were fundamentally opposed to each other and irreconcilable, which could only show that the temptation of the governor of Henan to Duan Qirui was too strong, so it affected Duan Qirui's judgment.

In fact, the appointment of Duan Qirui as the acting governor of Henan was decided by Cixi herself, which also caused a lot of reaction in the court at that time, because although Duan Qirui made some contributions, it was not enough to serve as the governor, even if it was a fictitious governor, because he was a Manchu minister, the opposition was very strong, and there was an important reason in addition to the qualifications, that is, Duan Qirui was Yuan Shikai's confidant, and his appointment as the governor of Henan would certainly help Yuan Shikai's power. However, Cixi still tried her best to disagree and decided to reward Duan Qirui.

However, although the decision was made, Cixi's heart was quite disappointed, although the Manchu magnates made a fuss about the power of the Han people, making a huge noise, but there was indeed no talent at that time, Tie Liang and Liangbi usually claimed to be good at fighting, but when they arrived on the battlefield, they were completely exposed, and they did not gain an inch, and they were not as good as a general under Yuan Shikai;

Cixi rewarded Duan Qirui heavily, first of all, of course, to motivate the Qing army, Bi Jing fought this time in the four towns of Beiyang, three towns are Yuan Shikai's henchmen, to say that the war is like this, there is no greasy in it, Cixi is to die and do not believe it, so he borrowed Duan Qirui, but also to Wang Yingkai and Wu Fengling to see, do you want to be promoted to become rich? Then fight with your heart.

Of course, more importantly, this is an important move to weaken Yuan Shikai's power, on the surface, Duan Qirui is Yuan Shikai's henchman, and promoting Duan Qirui is to increase Yuan Shikai's power, but Cixi knows in her heart that the truth is not so simple, although there are certain personal emotional factors between Duan Qirui and Yuan Shikai, the main thing is that there are common interests, to be precise, Yuan Shikai can provide Duan Qirui with the opportunity to be promoted and make a fortune, of course, Yuan Shikai also uses Duan Qirui to contribute to himself, the two can be regarded as having their own income and achieving a win-win situation。 But if someone else can also provide Duan Qirui with the opportunity to be promoted and make a fortune, he is stronger than Yuan Shikai, and even has a conflict with Yuan Shikai, so that Duan Qirui and Yuan Shikai will lose their common interests, even if they don't turn their faces immediately, they will insert a deed, and the relationship between Duan Qirui and Yuan Shikai will also change.

In addition, after Duan Qirui became the governor, although his official position was still not as good as Yuan Shikai, after all, he was not subject to Yuan Shikai's jurisdiction and command, and he could even be self-contained, so that sooner or later there would be contradictions between the two, even if there was none, the imperial court could easily create some contradictions to divide the two, so it was actually natural to weaken Yuan Shikai's power. This is the advantage of the imperial court, after all, whether it is Yuan Shikai or Duan Qirui, they are both officials of the Qing court, and they are ultimately subject to the imperial court.

In fact, this kind of differentiation method is not new in Cixi's view, when Zeng Guofan pacified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, founded the Hunan army, made immortal achievements, and mastered military power, the power of the time was great, enough to shake the foundation of the imperial court, and the imperial court to reduce the power of Zeng Guofan, is the use of this trick, that is, to put Zeng Guofan's subordinates such as Zuo Zongtang, Hu Yilin, Li Hongzhang and others were promoted to the same position as Zeng Guofan one by one, and then created contradictions among them, as a result, Zuo Zongtang and Zeng Guofan turned against each other, and although Li Hongzhang did not oppose Zeng Guofan, he founded the Huai Army, and the contradictions between the Hunan Army founded by Zeng Guofan could not be resolved, so he was not of the same mind with Zeng Guofan.

In fact, Cixi has never taken Yuan Shikai to heart, even if she knows that Yuan Shikai is developing her own power, she will let it go, it is because Cixi has too many ways to easily deal with Yuan Shikai, and the power cultivated by Yuan Shikai can be easily dissolved, so she deliberately pretended to be confused, and used Yuan Shikai's ability to do things for the Qing court, after all, the Qing court still needs people who can do things.

It's a pity that the Manchu nobles will only shout for power, power, and ambition is greater than anyone else, but no one can do things to reassure Cixi, if the Manchus produce a few characters like Yuan Shikai, even if they only have half of Yuan Shikai's ability, they don't have to rely on Yuan Shikai so much. Since he now rewards Duan Qirui heavily, none of the Manchu magnates can see their intentions, so how dare they hand over the power of the court to them?