Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, the autumn wind rose chrysanthemum yellow, and the city of Beijing ushered in the late autumn of 1866, and the city of Sijiu had been running smoothly for nearly two months under the rule of Xiao Letian.

During this period of time, the news of Xiao Letian's breakthrough of the Beijing Division has completely spread throughout the Qing Dynasty, and countless local governors have condemned Xiao Letian's atrocities, and even some governors in remote places actually want to bring troops into King Jingqin.

This is really a joke, the soldiers of Yunnan and Guichuan walked to Beijing on foot? The Gan-Shaanxi Green Battalion wanted to enter Beijing even if they did not guard against rebellion? The Hunan army and the Huai army occupied the Central Plains without saying anything about King Qin, and the governors of these peripheral areas were just making random statements.

King Qin's excerpt was still halfway to the Beijing Division, and the soothing Di Bao in the Forbidden City had already flown to all parts of the country, and this Di Bao edited by Ci'an Shou Ken Xiao Cheng Cheng made a big doxxing of the chaos in the entire Beijing Division for several months.

The deception of the French must be clearly written, Xiao Letian's victory in Europa must also be written about, Cixi is described as an innocent person who has been deceived, and all the sins are blamed on An Dehai and the little ghost of Wuyin and Mailer, of course, Prince Gong and Prince Alcohol are also at fault.

In the description of Di Bao, Xiao Letian became a poor man who was forced to be helpless, and the imperial court sent troops to attack him several times, and in the end he did not retaliate but accepted the decree of the Empress Dowager Dong and entered Beijing to quell the chaos. As for how many people died in the Manchus, then no one really cares.

Look at Xiao Letian, so many people died in Tanggu, Xiao Letian still stabilized the Manchu ruling system, all the officials were safe and sound, and the taxes of the imperial court were also paid a lot, if such a person said that he rebelled, it would be a bully.

Look at what Xiao Letian did after entering Beijing, all of them were projects to secure the people, and the price of rice in Sijiu City was 40 Wen, and the officials in the Jiangnan area were stupid.

The state system in the Middle Ages, the most concerned is the righteous name, Xiao Lotian did not kill officials, did not even arrest dissidents, the six departments of the imperial court are still operating normally, and finally even the foreigners in Dongjiaomin Lane said that Xiao Letian is not a careerist, such a guarantee blocked the mouths of the whole world.

Even in the end, Zeng Guofan wrote a letter affirming Xiao Letian's measures to reassure the people, admitting that Xiao Letian was a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty. The marshal was the guarantor, which blocked all the plans of the military Qin King, and the governors of the whole country were watching Zeng Guofan, and his statement could almost represent the entire attitude of the entire Hanchen warlord.

People say that the Qing Dynasty is the peak era of China's feudal centralization, but in fact, it is the three dynasties of Kang Yongqian, and the three generations of grandchildren really pressed the forces of all levels of the Qing Dynasty to death, and no one could move.

However, after the Qianlong Dynasty, the momentum of centralization began to gradually loosen, and the momentum of corruption intensified during the Jiaqing period, and the land annexation had made the people unbearable, and finally there was even a strange incident of Tianlijiao attacking the palace.

On September 14, the 18th year of Jiaqing, the Tianli disciples lurked in the capital to attack the Donghua Gate and the Xihua Gate, and later with the help of the eunuch Nei Ying, they actually conquered the Xihua Gate in one fell swoop.

The Yangxin Palace is already the location of the harem, it can be said that the Tianli Sect defeated all the defenders of the three major halls in this assault, and killed it all the way to the harem, and even forced the prince, who was later Emperor Daoguang, to personally lead the troops to fight and kill.

Later, Emperor Jiaqing, who was in Rehe, heard that the Forbidden City had been breached, so he immediately led his troops back to Beijing and tortured all the more than 300 Tianli prisoners he had captured to extract confessions.

Although the Tianli Sect's invasion of the Forbidden City did not have any major results, it also confirmed the signal in history that the Qing Dynasty had turned from prosperity to decline. After Jiaqing's son Daoguang succeeded to the throne, the Qing Dynasty was even more chaotic, and finally even the British robbers attacked it.

After Daoguang's death, Xianfeng succeeded to the throne, and this emperor was even more unbearable to covet beauty, after all, emperors have been lustful since ancient times. But after all, you are the son of Emperor Daoguang, and your father's ban on smoking has gone to war with the British, why did you smoke a lot of cigarettes in the Forbidden City?

Not only do you smoke a lot, but you also drink heavily, and when you get drunk, you will beat the eunuchs and palace maids, scold when you scold, and punish you when you say you will be punished, and when you wake up from the wine, you regret it, and coax these people, reward them with silver and small items, and then drink when you are done, and get drunk, and then make trouble when you are drunk.

Such a drug-addicted drunken maniac, no wonder he died after 11 years in power, this is life and death!

Not to mention in the Tongzhi period, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was pacified, the Han warlord group had been formed, and the two Opium Wars attracted countless Western bandits, and then the Manchus themselves did not have the worry to make a Xinyou coup.

It can be said that from Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng to Tongzhi, under the rule of these four generations of emperors, the centralized power of the Manchu Qing Dynasty has collapsed like an avalanche.

By 1866, the Manchu government had actually been divided among the four powers, and the centralization of power had become a joke.

The first group is the Manchu imperial family, which is very understandable, after all, the Qing Dynasty is a country full of people and eight banners, but this group is now disunited, and after the baptism of the Xinyou coup, everyone is having their own ghosts.

The second group was the Han warlords represented by Zeng Guofan. It is better to say that they are governors than to say that they are warlords, because since the Tongzhi Dynasty, all wars inside and outside the Manchu Qing Dynasty were actually fought down by the Han people, and the Manchu Eight Banners and Green Camp have long become synonymous with jokes.

The third group is the traditional officials, these civilian officials without military power, naturally close to the Qingliu led by Weng Tonggong, they represent the most traditional civilian power in China.

And the fourth group is the foreigners in Dongjiaomin Lane. After two Opium Wars, the Manchu Qing even let the British Hurd take over the customs, and the foreigners also had a say in the politics of the Manchu Dynasty, but the Tongzhi period was not as obvious as the Guangxu period.

Xiao Letian has a deep view of the political situation in the late Qing Dynasty, and he knows that these four political forces are very united on the surface, but there are also many contradictions in them, and even life and death feuds.

The royal family has now been divided into the old school and the reformers, the survivors of the Xinyou coup d'état naturally gathered together, and the Eastern Empress Dowager Ci'an has also seen through the faces of the people in the court, and has begun to support the reformers with a clear banner.

Look at the Han warlords, Zeng Guofan is a hidden dragon in China, his vision sees the rise and fall of China in the future, he is not a loyal minister of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, this old guy is now thinking about how to turn the more than 10 million square kilometers of land in the hands of the Manchu Qing into Han people.

For the sake of this ideal, he could give up the temptation to become emperor.

As for Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang, water and fire are incompatible, and the two will fight until death.

As for the foreigner group, it is even more ghostly, the British see that the Russians do not comply, and the French also hate Prussia, as long as they are not united, there will naturally be a chance for Xiao Lotian to show his skills.

Of the four political forces, there are already three of them that Xiao Lotian has leveraged, dealing with the royal family Xiao Letian threw out the bait of the Eight Kings to discuss politics, and also took out the big cake of the Longxugou Transformation Plan behind his back, Xiao Letian knew that it was no problem to buy them as a neutral.

To deal with the Han warlords, Xiao Letian has more methods, Wu Qing and Li Hongzhang have done a ruthless battle, which has convinced the old man Li, plus Zeng Guofan and him have the same smell, as long as he does not rebel against the Han warlords, he will still support him.

Look at the foreign forces again, with the Americans secretly matchmaking, even if France and Russia disagree, they can't stand the support of the United States, Britain, Prussia and other countries, Xiao Letian believes that they will not be bad.

In the end, there is only one group left, Xiao Letian is really helpless, that is the Qingliu force represented by Yiweng Tongyi, this group of corrupt Confucians is already ruthless to Xiao Letian to the bone, and there is no possibility of reconciliation between the two sides.

This is no longer a struggle for power, this is an academic dispute, and all academic disputes in China have never heard of the possibility of reconciliation, and the literati's grudges are simply stubborn and unreasonable.

However, Xiao Letian is not afraid, three of the four major political groups have been taken, and three to one will always be Xiao Letian's advantage, and the Manchu corrupt Confucians can't make any waves.

The common people don't know the ups and downs in the court, even if there is occasional gossip, it's just a smile after dinner, in their eyes, a prime minister who can stabilize the price of rice at 40 wen a liter, even if it is bad, how bad can it be? Not to mention that the Sijiu City made by the prime minister is so clean and the public security is so good.

Although during this time, there were always a group of people lacking big fingers on the streets of Sijiu City, and this group of people was also the most fierce group of people who scolded the prime minister, but a cripple is a cripple, and no matter how fierce the scolding is, can the prime minister be missing a piece of meat?

On the contrary, you are missing two thumbs, and you will not be able to do any work in the future.

This is a manifestation of the insidiousness of the New Army, knowing that the thumb is the most important finger in the human hand, and it is the key organ that cooperates with the other fingers to carry out activities. Try it if you don't believe me, what can you do with your remaining four fingers without the help of your thumb?

If the thumbs of these soldiers are cut off, they will be cut off from working as soldiers in the future, and there will be countless wastes in the Eight Banners system. The Manchu Qing Dynasty can support them for a day or two, but what about ten or eight years? After a long time, even the family can't stand your idle meals, let alone the imperial court.

Xiao Lotian forcibly put a big burden on the Manchu Qing that cannot be shirked, and one day he will be able to exhaust the Manchu Qing to death, and sooner or later the Eight Banners system will not be able to carry it.

Time passed day by day, the autumn wind in Sijiu City was replaced by a bitter cold wind, and gradually a faint black smoke drifted in the sky of the city, and the coal stoves of every household began to ignite, and the winter of 1866 finally came.

The notice that the imperial court is going to convene a great court meeting has already been sent, and the governor of Lu Yuan even began to rush to Beijing in the autumn, everyone knows that this year's great court meeting will affect the political direction of the next few decades, and everyone is not far behind in this feast of power.

The low price of grain has attracted a large number of displaced people to Beijing, and the collective return of local officials has made the atmosphere in Sijiu City even more enthusiastic, and the business of opera gardens, restaurants, and Qinglou is very good.

On the first day of the lunar month, after Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guoquan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and other powerful officials entered Beijing en masse, the smell of gunpowder in the political arena of Beijing was suddenly ignited.

"Dashuai is here, and I heard that Dashuai has brought 3,000 iron horsemen back to Beijing...... This is great, finally someone can compete with Xiao Motou, great, great, fortunately, there is a handsome Zeng in the imperial court!"

Countless people rushed to tell each other, they completely forgot that they were constantly attacking Zeng Guofan, attacking him for plotting wrong, and there was a backbone in the back of their heads.