Cixi and Zai Yi and others are still different, after all, she has to consider the consequences of a war with the great powers, and she has been hesitant. Otherwise, Dongjiaomin Lane, which is the area of foreign embassies, will not be able to be attacked for a long time.

However, it is difficult to stop when some things have already started, and at this time, Cixi has almost been kidnapped by Zai Yi and others.

Hence the declaration of war and the bounty we talked about earlier.

According to some sources, the declaration of war was not delivered to the foreign embassies, but was only published internally; It can be seen that Cixi still has reservations.

In order to establish their authority, they also said that they had broken the boat, and they also killed five ministers who opposed the war.

The first to bear the brunt were Xu Jingcheng, the servant of the Ministry of Officials, and Yuan Chang, the secretary of Taichang Temple. After them were the head of the household department, the head of the army, Xu Yongyi, and the cabinet scholar Lianyuan. These five people were later called Gengzi Wuzhong.

After the Wuxu Reform, Guangxu rarely spoke in front of the ministers, and rarely expressed his position on anything. And this time he firmly expressed his opposition to the whimsy and misdeeds of these people.

Seeing that these people even dared to do something that hurt foreign envoys, they once took the hand of Xu Jingcheng, the servant of the ministry, and cried.

Zai Yi once openly pointed at Guangxu's nose and scolded Guangxu traitor, extremely arrogant.

When Gyeonggi was in turmoil, he wanted to take the opportunity to get rid of Guangxu and clear the way for his son to ascend the throne. He once took dozens of people from the Boxers to kill Guangxu, but was stopped by Cixi.

Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, Li Hongzhang and others believed that the overall situation might turn around if they kept the southeastern provinces, which were the areas of the Qing Dynasty's wealth and the country's source of income. If these places are ravaged again, the whole situation will be disintegrated and uncontrollable.

They were powerless to stop the willful and reckless actions of Zai Yi and others, so they had to secretly agree with Britain on "southeast protection". It was agreed that the Shanghai concession would be protected by various countries, and all parts of the Yangtze River basin would be protected by the governors.

On 1 July, the Acting British Consul General in Shanghai, Huo Bilan, sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai, urging him to follow the example of Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, and Li Hongzhang.

Yuan Shikai immediately replied: "The contempt is the same as what the governors see. ”

In addition to Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, and Li Hongzhang, there were also Xu Yingqi, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Liu Shutang, governor of Zhejiang, Wang Zhichun, governor of Anhui, Deshou, governor of Guangdong, Duanfang, governor of Shaanxi, Kuijun, governor of Sichuan, and Sheng Xuanhuai, minister of railways.

Middle. In a centralized state, the conditions for the realization of rule are the smooth flow of government decrees and local obedience. Beg.

"Southeast Mutual Insurance" means that the medium. The central edict ordered that the localities could ignore it and the localities could do something else, which undoubtedly marked the end of the rule of this dynasty.

The "Southeastern Mutual Protection" can also be seen as a rehearsal for the successive declaration of independence of the southern provinces during the Xinhai Revolution.

Yuan Shikai was also one of the participants, and he also conscientiously fulfilled the mutual insurance agreement.

In order to protect the foreigners from being harmed by the Boxers, he instructed all prefectures and counties to inform the missionaries in the border and bring their dependents to live in Jinan.

Later, they escorted all the foreign priests and foreigners who managed the roads and mines to the treaty ports.

When the U.S. consul in Yantai transported more than 200 missionaries from the Xiaoqing River to Haikou, Yuan Shikai gave as much help as he could, sending troops to protect everyone who left.

He also provided protection and assistance to missionaries who fled to Shandong from Zhili and other provinces and refugees from various countries.

Thanks to his efforts, not a single foreigner in Shandong Province was killed.

The mutual protection of the southeast also protected the people of Shandong from the catastrophe of war.

Yuan Shikai let the place bordering Zhili rush to build a tall boundary plaque, indicating a village in a county in Shandong. At junctions and villages, traffic junctions are widely erected.

Many villages and towns also write large characters on the walls: This is within the boundaries of Shandong.

The Eight-Nation Coalition has also complied with the mutual insurance agreement. After chasing and suppressing the Boxers, when they saw the boundary sign of Shandong and the words in Shandong, they turned around and did not invade each other.

On July 14, Tianjin fell. On the 19th, the Qing Dynasty ordered Yuan Shikai to strictly punish Xia Xinyou's troops to advance quickly, and not to take the fall of Tianjin, and wait and see.

Yuan Shikai called back and said that the ministry had already gone north and did not dare to delay it for a while.

Xia Xinyou, the word Shaoxiang, Gengtang, Shandong Yuncheng people.

During the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, he was stationed in Dengzhou, served as the commander of the naval division, and sank two Japanese ships.

Under Yuan Shikai's account, he served as the head of the left wing of the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army.

After the fall of Tianjin, he led his troops to participate in the defense of the capital.

After the fall of the capital, he returned to Shandong with the remnants of the army, which is a later story.

More than ten days after the fall of Tianjin, the capital was in an emergency, and the Qing Dynasty urgently ordered Yuan Shikai to receive arms and send additional troops to defend the capital.

According to the mutual guarantee agreement agreed with the foreign powers, it is a violation of the agreement to send troops to the king. Xia Xinyoubu can explain that it was sent out before the agreement was concluded. Sending troops now is tantamount to tearing up the agreement on your own.

Yuan Shikai only sent some munitions, but did not send additional troops.

He doesn't have the qualifications of Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, and he is not as full-fledged as Liu Kunyi.

didn't dare to fight with the imperial court, so he could only prevaricate: "Zijin County is not defended, the bandits are brave and colluding with bandits, holding more foreign guns, and they are disturbing from time to time, which is almost impossible to prevent...... For half a year, I have been tired and clumsy...... The capital division is the foundation of the world, and the military situation is urgent, and the military is conscripted...... The center burned, and I didn't know what to do...... Can you look up to the grace of heaven to give in, and once the two bandits in Zhengjiakou and Pingyin County are slightly ready, and then draw the team, and order the place where the north will go quickly, it will come from Hongci overqualified. ”

Almost in a begging tone, he asked for a forgiveness. The attitude is extremely sincere, but he doesn't do real things.

However, at this time, his strength was really tight. They were all sent to the border area with Zhili to prevent the scattered Boxers from flowing into Shandong.

On August 15, the coalition forces captured Beijing, and Cixi fled with Emperor Guangxu and others.

Qing ** ordered Yuan Shikai to rush to help, but he still found all kinds of excuses to shirk.

In order to implement the "Southeast Mutual Insurance", it is indeed difficult for Yuan Shikai. Because the pressure on him is not only from above, but also from below.

Gyeonggi was invaded by the enemy, the emperor and the empress dowager fled for their lives, and the hot-blooded men under his command couldn't stand it.

For example, Zhang Xun, who led troops to encircle and suppress the Boxers on the border of Luzhi, asked Ying several times to "go to Beijing and Tianjin to help suppress Yangyi".

Seeing that the capital was lost, he was anxious: "Call on the marshal to lead the team to serve the king", and said that if Yuan Shikai could not be separated, he could go with the battalions. It's really not good, he is willing to "stand alone and make a horse leather shroud", and has avenged the "great revenge of the monarch".

For Zhang Xun's enthusiasm, Yuan Shikai couldn't be bruised, so he criticized: "Look, loyal and courageous, but he was instructed to defend the land and did not dare to move lightly. At present, there are still many bandits in the military family, and it is still hoped that efforts will be made to eliminate them. Be sure to! ”

Gengzi's national disaster ended with the defeated side taking the initiative to beg for peace and concluding the Xin Ugly Treaty that brought great disasters to the Chinese people. The signing of the Treaty of Xinchou was also an epoch-making event, indicating that China had completely degenerated into a semi-colonial country. In addition to so many punishment and restriction clauses, the compensation paid to the great powers alone was as high as 450 million taels, which was more than one tael of silver per person at that time. For a society that has long since withered people's livelihood, it is undoubtedly even worse.

An important factor in the Qing court's acceptance of such a harsh treaty was to save Cixi's life. During the negotiations, the great powers often wanted to fight Xi'an to find out the culprit. And the words that Ronglu, the chief assistant of the military aircraft, explained to Yixuan and Li Hongzhang, who were in charge of negotiations, was: Keep the Queen Mother at all costs.

Under the threat of the coalition forces not punishing the culprits and not making peace, the Empress Dowager Cixi issued four edicts to severely punish the so-called war criminals in order to save her old life. Cut off the heads of more than one hundred and twenty courtiers and officials of all ranks like cutting watermelons.

Among them, there are really people who deserve death, such as Yuxian, the governor of Shanxi. He was initially punished by dismissal and return to his hometown, but he was unable to pass with the foreign powers, and was given death halfway back to his hometown.

And most of them became innocent scapegoats because they obeyed the will of the imperial court.

The most damn thing should be Zai Yi who has been dreaming of the emperor. Because the sentence was to be beheaded instead of being decided, he saved his life and was finally exiled to the desert.

His son Pu Jun, who became the eldest brother, was also deposed because he was implicated. This farce of Yihai Jianchu can also end in laughter.

Those who are obedient and do what they are told become sinners, while those who do their own thing, go their own way, and do something different, are rewarded.

Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai and others were added to the title of prince for their meritorious service in the mutual protection of the southeast and the extermination of the Boxers.

With such a court, who will you reason with? If there is a decree, do you listen or not?

In Liu Kunyi's words, Cixi, an old widow, can do anything for her own selfishness.

After signing the Xinchou Treaty, Li Hongzhang once again bore the infamy of traitor.

Li Hongzhang, who was reappointed as the governor of Zhili, died of illness shortly after his arrival.

At this time, the Qing Dynasty no longer had the full power to appoint the governor of Zhili, and in the unanimous call of both inside and outside, Yuan Shikai was promoted to the governor of Zhili.