“…… Either the king was greedy for life and afraid of death, but forced by the situation, the king had to temporarily leave Tianjin and go to the northeast to arrange a major event for help. ”

"As for the reason, you must also know very well that the five princes and the seventh princes who are currently in Shengjing do not understand foreign affairs, Cao Yuying and Cao Zhongtang have never dealt with foreigners, and Gui Liang Gui Zhongtang, the only one with experience in foreign affairs, has unfortunately passed away, and there is no foreign minister in the entire Shengjing Dynasty. If you want to successfully borrow soldiers and horses from the Rakshasa people to rescue Tianjin, and not be blackmailed by the Rakshasa foreigners, you have to go out in person. So there is no way, this king can only temporarily part with you. ”

“…… Please rest assured, this king will never go back, after going to Shengjing, this king will borrow soldiers and horses from the Rakshasa people to rescue Tianjin at the first time, Wu rebel thief army defeated the Rakshasa fleet last time, but Wu thief that time was also the best out, or was beaten by the Rakshasa people to Daye before barely winning. So rest assured, this king only needs to borrow five or six foreigners' steamers this time, plus a few thousand Rakshasa elite soldiers, it is enough to defeat the Wu rebel army outside Tianjin City and rescue you from the sea of suffering! ”

“…… Okay, it's not too early, it's time for the king to say goodbye to you, please take care of yourself and wait patiently for the arrival of the king's rescuers, and then we will have a good time and say goodbye. ”

After throwing away a high-sounding speech, Guizi Liu still rushed to the Dagu Pass by boat in the middle of the night before the Wu army diverted water to besiege the city, and threw the defense of Tianjin City to the two important civil and military ministers, Wu Ren and Chen Guorui. When parting, the devil Liu, who knew very well that he was likely to never come back, also made another favor, took Chen Guorui and Wu Ren's hands and choked up and said: "Of course, it is best to wait for the rescue of the Rakshasa people, if you really can't hold on, you can also think about yourself." Rest assured, this king will not blame you, because this king knows very well that you have done your best, and this king is sorry for you. ”

Choked up and said, Devil Six also shed emotional tears, which moved Chen Guorui, who had an upright personality, and hurriedly patted his chest and promised that he would definitely stick to Tianjin and wait for reinforcements, even if he fought to the last soldier, he would never surrender to the Wu army. Wu Ren also shed tears and promised to give Chen Guorui a good start, the city is in the people, the city is dead, but he muttered in his heart: "Lord Wang, your words are beautiful, what can you really think about yourself?" I just helped you get rid of the Wu thief a few days ago, do you dare to think about yourself again? Jiang Zhongji and Zeng Guoquan are all notoriously cautious. ”

After even coaxing and deceiving Wen Wu to guard Tianjin for himself, Devil Six hurriedly boarded the ship, and under the protection of some absolutely reliable family servants and imperial guards, fled to the direction of Dagukou overnight. The result was also okay, although the boat on the road was discovered by the Wu army patrol scouts, shot at his boat, and urgently dispatched several small boats to pursue, but relying on the sacrifice protection of the family minions, as well as the first-mover advantage of the upstream river, the devil six always rushed to Dagukou before dawn, obtained the help and cover of the Dagukou defenders, and successfully got rid of the pursuit of Wu's boat.

Then, the devil six boarded the sea ship for the first time, and before dawn, he couldn't wait to sail to the northeast, and landed in Jinzhou Ant Tun very smoothly, and then went straight to Shenyang City, which is now called Shengjing, and finally arrived at Shenyang City at noon on the sixth day after leaving Tianjin, and rushed to the Shenyang Imperial Palace, which is now called Shengjing Imperial Palace, to see Ci'an and Cixi at the first time, and quickly obtained the summons of Ci'an and Cixi.

I haven't seen each other for more than a year, and when I saw my uncle again, Ci'an, who was more emotional, was in tears, and as soon as we met, I greeted Devil Six and cared about Devil Six's personal situation. Cixi was unceremoniously, and asked with a split face: "Sixth, the day before yesterday, you sent someone to report that Wu rebelled against the thieves and soldiers in Tianjin, and you were not in Tianjin to defend the city, why did you come back to Shengjing?" How is Tianjin doing now? Was it broken by Wu's rebel army? ”

"No, but it's about the same." The devil sighed, first told the story of the Tianjin War, and then explained: "The two queen mothers forgive their sins, and the younger brother originally wanted to stay in the city and stick to it, and live and die with Tianjin, but the civil and military forces in Tianjin did not obey, so they asked the younger brother to return to Shengjing to contact the foreigners, and borrowed foreign soldiers to relieve the siege of Tianjin, but the younger brother repeatedly refused, and then left the Tianjin ...... in tears." ”

"So? Tianjin City is already doomed to be unpreservable? Cixi interrupted the devil six rudely, and at the same time said disdainfully in her heart: "Don't give the old lady that set of vain, is it from Tianjin civil and military force, or you are greedy for life and afraid of death and ran back by yourself, the old lady knows very well in her heart!" ”

"If you can't borrow foreign soldiers and horses to save it, you will definitely not be able to save it." Devil Zi Liu finally told the truth, and said: "When the younger brother left Tianjin City, the Wu rebel thief army was hurrying to build a siege embankment, calculating the time, if the Wu thief moved fast enough, within four or five days, the Wu thief might lead the water to besiege the city." ”

Cixi closed her eyes helplessly, Ci'an wiped her tears, and asked about the civil and military situation of the Qing army in Tianjin, but without waiting for the devil to answer, Cixi rushed to say: "Sixth, Tianjin is already the last port for us to communicate with foreign countries, you have left Tianjin, how can we ask the foreigners for help?" ”

"The only way is to ask the Rakshasas for help." Devil Six replied dejectedly, and hurriedly added: "And the only people who can help us now are the Rakshasas." When I was in Tianjin, my subordinates also tried to ask for help from Yingyi, Fayi, Citigroup and other foreign countries, but in addition to asking for a sky-high price, they had no sincerity at all to help my Qing court, and their position was very biased towards Wu Chaoyue's traitor. Among them, the Prussian Yangyi even directly persuaded our Qing court to surrender to Wu Chaoyue's traitor, and asked the emperor to give Wu Chaoyue the traitor. ”

Cixi sighed again when she heard this, and said to Ci'an helplessly: "Sister, did you give the thing sent by Wu Chaoyue to the sixth brother to see?" ”

Ci'an agreed, and immediately asked An Dehai to take the letter of persuasion sent by Wu Chaoyue to send a messenger two days ago and hand it to Devil Six to read, but when he carefully read the record of the conversation with the Russian Minister Remeni attached to Wu Chaoyue's letter, Devil Six immediately changed his face, and shouted without thinking about it: "Treacherous scheme!" This is Wu Chaoyue's treacherous plan to surpass the traitor! This transcript of the conversation was either forged by him, or he deliberately manipulated the words of the Rakshasa minister to lie to that Rhemeni for saying such things. ”

"It's not a trick, it's a conspiracy." Cixi said lightly: "Actually, we all know very well in our hearts that the Rakshasa country has always been more oriented towards us, not because of any kindness, but because of the covetousness of our Qing Dynasty, as long as the Rakshasa people have the opportunity, they will definitely swallow us even with the bones." If Wu Chaoyue's traitor makes a concession at the negotiation table that satisfies the Rakshasas, the Rakshasa people will sell us immediately, and even take us down in person and give it to Wu Chaoyue as a gift. The Rakshasa minister named Remeni just pierced this layer of window paper in front of Wu Chaoyue's traitor. ”

Devil Six was speechless, because with the wisdom of Devil Six, he had long understood that the Tsarist side had no good intentions to support the Manchu Qing court, except that there was a chance that the Manchu court would definitely be eaten in one bite, as long as the price offered by Wu Chaoyue was right, the Tsarist side would definitely be able to sell the Manchu court without even pants. At this time, Ci'an finally said something serious, and said, "Sixth, if you take a closer look at Wu Chaoyue's letter from the traitor, do you think it can be trusted?" ”

"Empress Dowager Dong, do you want to accept Wu Chaoyue's traitor's surrender?" The six devils asked in shock.

Ci'an didn't nod, but he didn't deny it, he just wiped the corners of his eyes and said: "It's not that the mourning family is afraid of the Wu transcendence traitor, it's that the Qing dynasty has reached this point, and the Qing court's hope of recovering the country is getting slimmer and slimmer, on the contrary, it may not even be able to keep the land of Longxing in the northeast, so the mourning family has to think about the future of the Qing Dynasty." Although Wu Chaoyue is a traitor, he has always respected the emperor as a king, and has always regarded himself as a subordinate, and the condition he put forward is only to let the mourning family and his sister no longer listen to the government, and let the sixth brother and the fifth brother and the seventh brother ....... ”

"Sister-in-law, don't be deceived by Wu Chaoyue's coy posture as a traitor." Devil Zi Liu hurriedly kowtowed and interrupted, and said: "The reason why Wu Chaoyue rebel has not usurped the throne and stand on his own until now is that he wants to be a bitch and set up an archway, and he also wants to give shameless traitors such as Qi Ling, Changyu and Lao Chongguang a step to go down, if the two sisters-in-law are fooled, invite the emperor back to the Guannei, and let Wu Chaoyue rebel take charge of the government, then three years, at least two years, Wu Chaoyue rebel thief will inevitably follow Cao Pi, Sima Yan and Yang Jian and others, forcing the emperor to take the throne to him." ”

Speaking of this, Devil Six hurriedly added, "Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if Wu Chaoyue is a traitor who cares about his hypocritical reputation and refuses to usurp the throne, his subordinates will definitely not let go of our Qing court, and will inevitably force Wu Chaoyue to add the yellow robe of the traitor, because only when Wu Chaoyue becomes the emperor, can they ensure glory and wealth, and they don't have to worry about our Qing court settling accounts with them in the future." Therefore, the younger brother believes that no matter how nice Wu Chaoyue's traitor says in the letter, he must not believe it, and once he believes his promise, he will definitely regret it in the future. ”

"What should I do?" Ci'an wiped away his tears again, cried and said: "Wu Chaoyue can't believe the traitor, and the Rakshasa foreign devil can't believe it, what should we do in the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Devil Ziliu hesitated for a moment, but still opened his mouth, kowtowed and said: "Two sisters-in-law, the younger brother is foolish, the current plan, the younger brother thinks that our best choice is to negotiate with Wu Chaoyue rebel to break the land and rule, let Wu Chaoyue rebel claim the emperor in the pass, our Qing court in the northeast and Mongolia to establish a state, and Wu Chao is called the second emperor and fight in the court." In exchange for recognizing Wu's throne as a traitor, temporarily stop the war with Wu's rebel army, accumulate strength outside the pass, and then wait for changes in the pass, and then raise troops to enter the pass to recover the lost land. ”

"This is a solution, but will Wu Chaoyue be a traitor?" Ci'an asked worriedly.

"We can use the Rakshasa people to threaten Wu Chaoyue against the traitors." Devil Six replied: "Let our envoy directly tell Wu Chaoyue that if he does not agree to the conditions we propose, we will immediately ask the Rakshasas to garrison the northeast and help our Qing court protect the northeast, and would rather risk being annexed by the Rakshasas than give in to Wu." In this way, as long as Wu Chaoyue rebels are afraid of direct border with the Rakshasas, they will not fail to consider our proposal. ”

Ci'an pondered, and after a while, he asked Cixi next to him: "Sister, what do you think of the proposal of the sixth child?" ”

Cixi, who has always been very assertive, hesitated for a long time before saying: "I'm afraid that Wu Chaoyue will be able to see through our false words and intimidation at a glance, and flatly refuse, or he will plan and suddenly send troops to the northeast and kill us by surprise." ”

"Then we really ask the Rakshasa people to garrison the northeast and see what he can do with the Wu thief!" The devil said fiercely.

"Sixth, are you crazy?" After many years, Cixi finally stood on the side of her little uncle Wu Chaoyue again, and said directly: "Wu Chaoyue rebels only want to dominate the world, and may not want our lives, the Rakshasa people not only want us in the Northeast, but also won't mind asking for our lives, are you willing to hand over your life to the Rakshasa people?" ”

After saying that, afraid that Ci'an would be shaken by the devil six, Cixi hurriedly turned to Ci'an and said: "Sister, I think that compared with Wu Chaoyue's rebels, the Rakshasa people are not only more untrustworthy, but also more dangerous. On the contrary, in order to buy the hearts of the old people of our dynasty, Wu Chaoyue is very likely to treat us and the emperor well. ”

Ci'an nodded slowly, and said hesitantly: "Or, so let's send someone to talk to Wu Chaoyue first, and see if we can fight for the land and rule, if not, it's not too late for us to make other plans." ”

Cixi nodded immediately, agreeing with Ci'an's opinion, and the devil Liuyi couldn't compete with the two sisters-in-law, and the second was also very clear that the Tsarist side had bad intentions, so he reluctantly nodded and said: "That's the only way to do it, try your luck." ”

In this way, when there was still a chance to pull the tiger's skin as a banner, because they were afraid that they would be swallowed by the Tsarist side and die even worse, Ci'an, Cixi and Guizi Liu took the initiative to break off the idea of fully falling to Tsarist Russia, and sent Prince Rui Renshou and scholar Li Hongzao as envoys to rush south to Hubei to negotiate with Wu Chaoyue to break the ground and rule, in a vain attempt to recognize Wu Chaoyue's imperial throne as a condition, in exchange for Wu Chaoyue to allow the Manchu court to establish a state in Northeast China and Mongolia, and continue to fight against Wu Chaoyue.

As a coincidence, only two days after Renshou and Li Hongzao left Shengjing, the new plenipotentiary minister of Tsarist Russia to China, Remeni, also came to Shengjing, and met with Guizi Liu at the first time, and as soon as they met, they took the initiative to express their willingness to send troops to garrison Northeast China and Mongolia to help the Manchu court resist the attack from the Wu army, and also made it clear that they were willing to mediate the armed dispute between the Manchu court and the Wu army, and help the Manchu court consolidate its rule in the northeast and Mongolia.

If it weren't for the letter sent by Wu Chaoyue in advance, so that Ci'an, Cixi, and Guiziliu could understand the wolf ambitions of Tsarist Russia, perhaps Rhemeny's treacherous plan to put Northeast China and Mongolia into the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia might have succeeded. But it's a pity for Rhemeni, the current Ci'an and Cixi's fear of Tsarist Russia is far above the fear of Wu Chaoyue, so even if the devil is a little shaken and wants to agree, Ci'an doesn't dare to make up his mind, plus Cixi is more inclined to Wu Chaoyue because of some things, and stands up to oppose it, Remeni's attempt still failed to succeed.

In the end, at the request of Ci'an and Cixi, the devil six could only ask Rhemeny to first relieve the siege of Tianjin and then agree to the request of the Tsarist Russia to garrison, but Remeny, who was unable to launch a large-scale war in the Far East, of course did not dare to agree, and could only use rhetoric to coax the Manchu court to agree to the garrison, and the alliance negotiations between the Manchu court and Tsarist Russia were completely deadlocked, and the insatiable Tsarist Russia could not seize the opportunity and send the Far Eastern army to the northeast in advance.

At the same time, Wu Chaoyue's side has also received Renshou and Li Hongzao's request to negotiate in Hubei, after roughly figuring out the intentions of Renshou and Li Hongzao, Wu Chaoyue thought about it, and finally made up his mind, and said: "It's time to solve the Northeast problem, taking advantage of the Shengjing Rebellion Party still holding illusions about us, and also taking advantage of the fact that they still dare not fully fall to the Rakshasa people, quickly send troops to the Northeast, promote surrender by war, and force the Shengjing Rebellion to surrender to us." ”

"But our finances can't afford it?" Yan Jingming reminded: "The war on the southeast coast is still the last point, we will not collect taxes for a while and a half, and we have to pay for it, and the northwest side does not know when it will be fought, and our financial revenue and expenditure will long be beyond our means. ”

After that, Yan Jingming also added, "Also, according to our plan, we will soon launch a war to rescue the Ryukyus, and no one knows how much money this foreign war will cost, so this is another bottomless pit." ”

"Borrow foreign debts from foreigners, use our customs and salt taxes as guarantees, and borrow money to fight this war!" Wu Chaoyue patted the case in front of him, and said loudly: "Besides, ask my father to borrow money from Hong Kong and Liangguang, and borrow money from those rich businessmen!" I don't believe it, and with the current situation of my family, I can't borrow this money from those merchants! Borrow money to fight this battle, and also fight the battle of the Ryukyus! ”

It was still a coincidence, Wu Chaoyue had just made up his mind, and before he could discuss the specific details of borrowing foreign debts from foreigners with Zhao Liewen, Yan Jingming and others, there was a news outside the door that Interim Foreign Minister Guo Songtao asked to meet, after Wu Chaoyue ordered a summons, Guo Songtao soon came to the front, and as soon as they met, he bowed his hand to Wu Chaoyue and said: "King Zhennan, Daxi, the situation over there of the Japanese Satsuma Domain, we have roughly figured it out, and Your Majesty dares to guarantee that we have a chance this time!" ”

"What are the opportunities you can take advantage of?" Wu Chaoyue asked curiously.

"The Satsuma Domain of Fuso was also not united, and their head Shimazu Tadayoshi was used as a puppet by his father Shimazu Hisamitsu, and was overshadowed by his retainers Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshitsu." Guo Songtao smiled and said the two Japanese names that Wu Chaoyue was vaguely familiar with, and said: "The information we have collected clearly shows that Shimazu Tadayoshi is very dissatisfied with his two retainers, and even more dissatisfied with his father Shimazu Hisamitsu, but he is afraid that the real power is in the hands of Shimazu Hisamitsu and the two retainers, so he does not dare to attack. ”

Before Guo Songtao's words could speak, countless ideas of lack of morality had already appeared in Wu Chaoyue's mind, making Wu Chaoyue couldn't help but smile smugly.