Guan Zhuofan's excerpt, "Six Things to Try in Jiangsu", was quickly approved in the form of an edict issued by the Ming Dynasty, and all affairs such as minting silver coins, running new postal posts, and opening a Cantonese dialect hall were all approved.

In any case, the word "trial run" is a very haode excuse for the imperial court, and it is also a very haode comfort psychologically, which can make some criticism from the outside a strong resistance - it is not a trial run, but it is just a provincial place, what does it matter?

In the Westernization faction, they are quite excited, and privately call Guan Zhuofan's excerpt and the imperial court's edict "Foreign Six Articles", and they can be imitated and implemented as long as Jiangsu achieves some results.

In the past few days, King Alcohol has been "listening" with the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces, and he has also gained a lot of insight in foreign affairs, but now his mind is on another matter - since the last time Cixi mentioned the topic of listening to the opera, he immediately began to prepare, and finally on the day of July 27, he invited the two palaces to his palace to "patrol the luck".

The Alcohol Palace, located in the Taiping Lake in the southwest corner of the inner city, is not far from the Forbidden Palace, so the Empress Dowager Cixi instructed that the Yi Cong Te Jian - after all, Xun Xing is just a name, and he really went to listen to the play, and it is not a good thing to be too public. So the three Ming Huang imperial sedan chairs, by the prince of the near branch and Luan Yiwei Hu followed, from the Xihua Gate out of the palace, all the way to the west. When they arrived at the door of the Alcohol King's Mansion, the three of King Xuan, King Gong and King Alcohol were already kneeling to pick up, personally supported the sedan chair, and sent it straight inside.

Ordinary ministers naturally won't come, but Guan Zhuofan still took over the station shift in the palace as a royal guard, and when the king passed by in the sedan chair, he also glanced at him.

Wait until the play starts. The first one is Cixi's favorite "Shiro Visits His Mother". Cheng Changgeng gestured. Put a body in the camp. Yang Yanhui, who thinks about the country, portrays it very well, and everyone present, including the little emperor and Dunrou Gege, is intent.

Only Cixi, who is obviously her favorite play, watched it, but saw that she was in her heart. She watched Yang Shilang and Princess Tiejing guess on stage. While thinking to himself, it can be seen that he is inferior to others, and he will be bullied, Song Liao is at war, Song Guo can't beat it, and even heroes like Yang Shilang are trapped in the camp, and if they want to go back to see their mother, they have to whisper to Princess Tiejing, and beg each other tactfully.

She didn't expect that the Manchurians were also "Fanren", but naturally regarded foreign devils as Fanbang. Now there are quite a few troops in the imperial court. But how many can really be played? Even if it's Xuan Jun. Can you beat the foreign devils? If you have to be angry with foreigners every day in the future, then this queen mother is really tasteless.

Thinking of this, I couldn't wait to call Guan Zhuofan over immediately and ask him. just thought about it in my heart, and as a result, I missed the most exciting "sitting in the palace".

sang two plays in a row, and it was time to take a break. Cixi and Ci'an returned to the small flower hall specially set aside for them to rest, touched up their makeup in the room, and just sat down on the throne with a yellow curtain, Cixi couldn't wait to say to King Xuan, who was in charge of the "general promotion" today: "Fifth master, you go and call Guan Zhuofan in, our sisters have something to ask him." ”

King Xuan is the oldest of Xianfeng's younger brothers, with a rough temperament and a well-known "confused prince". When he heard that he was going to call Guan Zhuofan, he bowed down first, but he came with a clueless sentence: "Queen Mother, this Guan Zhuofan is not very good." ”

"Huh?" Cixi and Ci'an were both stunned, Cixi looked at King Xuan and asked, "Why is it not good?" ”

"When he was the governor of Jiangsu, he didn't fight well, and he accepted a cook as a concubine."

An Dehai, who was waiting on the side, chuckled in his heart - this confused prince, what's wrong today, suddenly he can't get along with Brother Guan?

He didn't know that in the case of King Xuan, he actually didn't mean to get along with Guan Zhuofan. The king of the king, who did not know anything about the military affairs, was gossiping in the market, and was most interested, and when he heard about this matter, he said something, and he poured it out in front of the queen mother at this moment.

Cixi didn't know why, only to feel a wave of vinegar rushing straight to her head, and the color immediately changed, and she endured it and endured it, but she still "hummed" softly.

An Dehai saw it in his eyes, and he was anxious, thinking that it turned out that in the governor's office, there were no rules for taking concubines? But at such a time, it was not his turn to speak, he could only stare dryly, and there was no way to turn around for Guan Zhuofan.

"Fifth Master, you're making a bit of a fuss, aren't you?" However, the Empress Dowager Ci'an didn't think about it so much, and said with a smile: "Since it is the time when he is the governor, it means that the war has been over, so what about accepting a concubine?" ”

The king was speechless for a while, thought about it and said, "It is against the rules for him to let this concubine wear a red dress." ”

An Dehai was in a hurry, but when he heard this, he was relieved - the king himself had committed a big taboo first.

In the life of the Empress Dowager Cixi, the biggest regret was that she could not enter the noon gate as the main palace. For Emperor Xianfeng, she herself is a concubine, and although she is now the queen mother, she is extremely sensitive to all words and deeds that despise the word "concubine". Hearing that Guan Zhuofan asked his concubine to wear a red dress, he suddenly felt like a confidant, and shouted hello in his heart, and even with the vinegar of Fang Cai, it seemed to have diluted a lot. As for the king of the Emperor, naturally he doesn't have a good face.

"My sister is right, he is a dignified marquis, the governor of a province, what happened to accepting a concubine?" Cixi said coldly, "This girl can follow him, she has a good eye, I want to reward her with something when I go back." ”

A small accident disappeared invisibly. The king touched a nail, went out in a daze, and called Guan Zhuofan in, but he avoided it, not daring to look at Cixi's face again.

"Guan Zhuofan," Cixi had already returned to color, looking at Guan Zhuofan who was standing down, and had a strange feeling in her heart, "Your Xuan Army, how many people are there now?" ”

This is talking about military affairs again, Guan Zhuofan weighed it in his heart before answering.

"Back to the Empress Dowager, the Xuan army in Jiangsu is 31,000 people, and Liu Yulin's jade regiment is 2,500 people, who took over the Huai army and is stationed in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, echoing Zuo Zongtang."

"Are these more than 30,000 people capable of fighting?"

After talking about foreign affairs so many times, Guan Zhuofan could roughly guess what she was thinking, and said in her heart that she should not be like Liu Changyou, the governor of Zhili, and she couldn't wait to do it with Britain and France now.

"If you go back to the Queen Mother, it is enough to use it to beat long hair." Guan Zhuofan said cautiously. "The minister is also training."

That is to say, it is not enough to use it against others. Cixi nodded, thought about it and asked: "Wang Haiyang is still entrenched in Hangzhou, can Zuo Zongtang break it?" ”

"Zuo Zongtang is talented and loyal, Wang Haiyang must not be an opponent. Please rest assured that Hangzhou will be broken in the near future. ”

"Well, that's good." Cixi was quite comforted, and asked: "What do you think of Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang?" ”

"They are all loyal ministers."

This sentence is a wonderful answer, which means that you dare not make judgments.

"It's okay, there's no one else here, just let it go." Cixi laughed. "In terms of military affairs, you know best, in your opinion, in addition to the Xuan army, what other armies can be fought?"

"If you can fight, Zuo Zongtang's Chu army is haode, Li Hongzhang's Huai army is also good, and the Mongolian horse team of the monk king is a temporary choice." With Cixi's words, Guan Zhuofan really let go and said, "But if there are many real people, it is naturally the Hunan army." ”

"Tell me about it, can the Hunan army be able to fight?"

"Fight tiger brothers, go into battle father and son soldiers." Guan Zhuofan said solemnly, "The Hunan army and the Hunan army are always based on the children of Sanxiang, and they are related to each other, and they are connected with kindness and righteousness. Therefore, when there is a war, it is natural to order and prohibit it, but the name of Zeng Guofan is to listen, where to fight, and there is no retreat. With such an army, Zeng Guofan was able to fight from Hunan to Hubei, from Jiangxi to Anhui, sweeping all the way, and finally defeated Jinling......"

He was talking happily there, Ci'an didn't feel anything, but Cixi's face had changed color slightly.

“…… The situation in the southeast is determined by one hand, and it is really the pillar of the country, and the ministers are convinced. Guan Zhuofan didn't pay attention to Cixi's face at all, and was still praising himself, "As for some ignorant village elders, nonsense about Lord Zeng wanting to enter Beijing to become the emperor is really nonsense, and the minister dares to guarantee it, it is not even a shadow at all." ”

*(To be continued......)