The Qixiang coup d'état planned and arranged by Cixi was able to succeed smoothly, relying on the time difference of three days before the minister of Gu Ming's return to Beijing, and in solving the problem of Wu Chaoyue, Cixi was also prepared to fight a time difference, or a bigger time difference. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

It must also be explained that Cixi actually did not intend to put Wu Chaoyue to death before, and even very much hoped to replace Su Shun to become Wu Chaoyue's backer in the Manchu court, and develop the little uncle Chaoyue who had never met into her own strong foreign aid in the local area.

On the day of the incident, Cao Yuying, the leader of Zhangjing who was lurking in the military aircraft department of the coup group, told Ci'an and Cixi through underground channels, saying that the whereabouts of Devil Six were found to be the ghost of Wu Chaoyue's accomplice Guo Songtao.

As a result, this also immediately gave Cixi a wake-up call, making Cixi realize that even Wu Chaoyue's accomplice lackeys did not hesitate to stand on Su Shun's side at critical moments, not to mention Wu Chaoyue, who had received countless favors from Su Shun for a long time, and his whole body was clearly full of Su Party seals? Coupled with the irreconcilable sharp contradictions between Wu Chaoyue and many backbones of the coup group, as well as Wu Chaoyue's overly powerful military threat in the local area, Cixi decisively changed her course and made up her mind to clean up her little uncle while cleaning up Sushun! Directly solve the biggest hidden danger in the local area!

The conspiracy also began to brew on the same night, and the scheming Cixi not only found someone who could clean up Wu Chaoyue early, but also arranged a foolproof plan of action with her own hands, and if it succeeded, she would take down her little uncle Wu Chaoyue and take back the military power of Huguang and Liangjiang. If it doesn't work out, it won't show any flaws, it won't make Wu Chaoyue suspicious, and it won't force Wu Chaoyue to the point where he has to jump over the wall, leaving an opportunity to clean up Wu Chaoyue in the future.

Everyone knows that Cixi wanted to use the hand of Chong'en, the governor of Hunan, to clean up Wu Chaoyue's affairs, and Cixi chose Chong'en for three reasons, one is that it is close to the hands and easy to use, and the other is that Chong'en is loyal and reliable to the Manchurians, or the biggest nail and eyeliner that Emperor Xianfeng had planted in Huguang before, shouldering the heavy responsibility of suppressing the rebellion of the Han people in Huguang at any time. The third is that Cixi has seen several secret folds of Chong'en when she was by the side of Emperor Xianfeng, and knows that Chong'en is very dissatisfied with Wu Chaoyue's forcible interference in Hunan's military power, and is also very vigilant and worried about Wu Chaoyue's excessive military power, which is the most ideal candidate.

By the way, Cixi originally considered letting Jingzhou General Mianxun carry out this order, but considering that Mianxun was old and sick, and Jingzhou was located in the hinterland of Hubei, it was difficult to hide any changes in the Jingzhou garrison from Wu Chaoyue's eyes, so Cixi decisively gave up letting Mianxun do it.

In the plan to arrest Wu Chaoyue, Cixi only did two things with her own hands, the first thing was to pull Ci'an to join hands to give Chong'en a secret edict to legally arrest Wu Chaoyue, and by the way, she gave Chong'en a secret letter, explaining the specific action method and time. The second thing is to secretly instruct a Rehe official to write a book to show Zeng Guofan's previous great achievements, and ask the Hunan local government to build a Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall for him in Zeng Guofan's hometown of Xiangxiang, Hunan, and give him a title to show eternal commemoration. And this excerpt was immediately approved by the Sushun group, which attached great importance to Hanchen, and was approved in the name of the Military Aircraft Department after obtaining the consent of Cixi............

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Relying on the full assistance of the prince and the alcohol prince, as well as the post station system that could barely maintain operation, the secret edict and Cixi's secret letter stamped with the seals of the two palaces were quickly sent to Hunan, and when they were presented to Chong'en, the time was only February 15 of the tenth year of Xianfeng, not only the coup d'état of Qixiang had not yet happened, but even the report that Xianfeng's coffin would leave for the capital on February 23 had not yet been sent to Huguang, leaving Chong'en with barely enough time to prepare.

After reading the secret edict and Cixi's secret letter, Chong'en didn't dare to hesitate too much while being frightened, and soon summoned his absolute henchman He Shaoji to discuss whether to take the order, and as a result, He Shaoji, who had served as a Sichuan scholar, was also taken aback after reading the secret edict and the secret letter, and said in surprise: "The secret edict of the two palaces arrested Wu Zhitai? The imperial court has just issued an edict to promote Wu Zhitai to the governor of Huguang and Liangjiang, and granted the power to control the civil and military officials and armies of the five provinces. ”

"If I'm not mistaken, something big is going to happen to Rehe."

Chong'en said with a gloomy face: "I can conclude that the matter of Feng Wu Chaoyue becoming the governor of the five provinces is definitely the ghost of Sushun's gang!" The Queen Mother of the Two Palaces was definitely forced to issue an edict! This will make the empress dowager of the two palaces suddenly issue an edict to arrest Wu Zhitai, indicating that the empress dowager of the two palaces has decided to take back the power of the court from Su Shun's gang, so it is necessary to arrest Wu Chaoyue, the biggest henchman of Su Shun in the local governor, at the same time, to prevent Wu Chaoyue from jumping over the wall in a hurry and supporting the army to cause chaos. ”

He Shaoji was silent, and only after a while did he say: "Yangzhi, I have to remind you, although the Empress Dowager Xi's plan is feasible and has a great chance of success, even if it fails, as long as it doesn't leak the news, Wu Chaoyue doesn't know that you will deal with him." But your bigger risk is still to come, if you really take down Wu Chaoyue, but the queen mother of the two palaces fails to successfully take back the power of the court from Su Zhongtang and them, then you will be sitting on a big wax. ”

"That's why I'm worried about that, so I'm talking to you." Chongen frowned and asked, "Zizhen, in your opinion, is the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces sure that she will take back the power of the court from Su Zhongtang?" ”

"Yes! It's not a complete certainty, but it's definitely not small. ”

He Shaoji's answer surprised Chong'en very much, and then He Shaoji pointed out: "First of all, the first point, the edict of the first emperor, the new emperor's edict must be stamped with two seals given by the emperor to take effect, and these two seals are all in the hands of the queen mother of the two palaces, which means that no matter what court officials plan the holy decree, as long as the queen mother of the two palaces stamps the seal on the holy decree, Su Zhongtang must be unconditionally executed unless they want to rebel or resist the decree!" ”

"Second, Su Zhongtang only has the hearts of some Han people, but not the hearts of flag people." He Shaoji continued: "Su Zhongtang has relied on the favor of the emperor to fight corruption over the years, offended countless court officials, and stopped sending money and food to the front line of the bannermen, resulting in the Eight Banners in the capital being full of food and clothing, hunger and cold, and almost everyone in the Eight Banners hated to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin!" is so unexpected, if the queen mother of the two palaces really decrees to accept his power, most of the officials in the capital and all the Eight Banners will definitely applaud and support it. ”

"Of course, it's not entirely certain." He Shaoji hurriedly added: "So Yangzhi, you have to be cautious, if you really let Su Zhongtang sit firmly in the position of the minister of Gu Ming, and you and Wu Chaoyue turn their faces, then your fate will definitely not be good!" ”

Chong'en's face became even more gloomy, but after thinking about it for a long time, Chong'en gritted his teeth and said, "Act according to the edict!" ”

"Yangzhi, have you made up your mind?" He Shaoji hurriedly asked.

"I am an official of the Qing Dynasty, and the secret edict of the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces is stamped with the seal of the Holy Decree, I cannot resist the decree, I must do my duty."

Chongen replied coldly, and added in his heart: "I am still full of eight banners, and I can't swallow this breath when I let Wu surpass that milky little barbarian as the governor of the five provinces!" And Su Shun's bastard really won, as long as I show the edict to prove that I am acting on orders, it is not impossible to recover! ”

Seeing that Chong'en had made up his mind, He Shaoji did not insist on opposing it, but immediately wrote an official letter to Li Xuechao, the magistrate of Xiangxiang County, at Chong'en's request, ordering Li Xuechao to build a first-class official regulation Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall in Baiyangping, Zeng Guofan's hometown, Lotus Pond, within five days after receiving the letter, and wait for Wu Chaoyue, the governor of the five provinces, to personally preside over the opening ceremony. At the same time, in order to show respect for Zeng Guofan, Chong'en, who is very famous in calligraphy, also personally wrote three big characters of Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall and a couplet in memory of Zeng Guofan, and sent them to Xiangxiang to let Li Xuechao make a plaque to hang on the ancestral hall.

Then, three days later, when the time of the return of Emperor Xianfeng's coffin to Beijing was confirmed through the intelligence channels provided by the coup group in Beijing, Chong'en personally wrote a letter to Wu Chaoyue, explaining the order to build the ancestral hall, and invited Wu Chaoyue to Xiangxiang, Hunan Province on the third day of the first month of March to personally preside over the opening ceremony of the Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall, and also inspected the actual situation of the state capital in Hunan by the way. - Pay attention to the time, this time was arranged by Cixi herself to Chong'en, asking Chong'en to trick Wu Chaoyue into Hunan within ten days after the departure date of Xianfeng's coffin.

In addition, in order to ensure that Wu Chaoyue could be invited to Hunan, Chongen also specially arranged for Li Hongzhang, a staff member who had been kept in the dark, to serve as an envoy, so that Li Hongzhang would invite Wu Chaoyue no matter what, and also carefully arranged many clever excuses for this. And after Li Hongzhang was ordered to leave for Hubei, Chongen also breathed a long sigh of relief, and said secretly: "Of course, it is best to be invited, but only Zizhen and I know about not being invited, and he Wu Chaoyue will not have any suspicions." ”

Of course, what Chong'en failed to calculate, and what the shrewd Cixi couldn't control, was that there was actually a small flaw in their plan............

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Let's take a look at the situation of building an ancestral hall for Zeng Guofan, as mentioned earlier, in this era, Li Xuechao, the commander of Xiangxiang County in Hunan Province of the Qing Dynasty, was an excellent official who was very good at pleasing his boss, and the official document sent by Chongen from Changsha was sent to Xiangxiang by waterway in just over a day. Therefore, although the time is very tight, Zeng Guofan's hometown Baiyangping is also a little far away from Xiangxiang County, but seeing that the official document said that Wu Chaoyue, the governor of the five provinces of the Qing Dynasty, would personally come to open the ancestral hall of the teacher, Li Xuechao still did not dare to do any negligence, and on the same day, he sent the master and Mr. Feng Shui to Baiyangping to explore the address of the ancestral hall, and immediately prepared the best wood, bricks and paints, and mobilized mules and horses and vehicles overnight to send Baiyangping to start construction.

Even so, Li Xuechao still didn't dare to rest assured, and the next day he hurriedly handed over the county's official affairs to the county Cheng to deal with it temporarily, and rushed to Xiangxiang Township with a large team of errands to personally supervise the construction, in order to speed up the progress of the project, not only forced the migrant workers to continue construction day and night, but also personally rolled up his sleeves to carry stones and pick up soil, and was more diligent than repairing his own ancestral tomb.

But it's a pity, because Li County Ling was too snobbish with the old Zeng family before, the Zeng brothers who are still studying and farming in the ancestral house refuse to accept his love, and every day passing by the Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall at the entrance of the village refuses to come over to see how hard Li Xuechao is, so that Li Xuechao's hope that the Zeng brothers will help him say a few kind words in front of Wu Chaoyue has been completely disappointed. On the last day of the project, when the ancestral hall was about to be completed, Li County ordered to send his master to visit Zeng's family and invite the Zeng brothers and Zeng Guofan's wife to come and see if there was anything that was not perfect, but it was a pity......

"Master forgive the sin, Mrs. Zeng and General Zeng don't want to come, saying that the ancestral hall was ordered to be repaired by the imperial court, and they have no right to interfere no matter what kind of cultivation it is."

Hearing the master's dejected reply, Li Xuechao, who was covered with ashes, also sat in front of the ancestral hall even more dejectedly, and was no longer interested in directing the workers to hang the plaque. The master comforted: "Don't worry, master, since Wu Zhitai, the governor of the five provinces, is going to personally preside over the opening ceremony, you will definitely have the opportunity to kowtow to Wu Zhitai at that time, and there will be a chance for Wu Zhitai to know your filial piety." ”

"There's a fart!" Li Xuechao scolded angrily, and snorted: "At that time, Wu Zhitai must be surrounded by a large number of civil and military generals, and Chongfutai must also come in person, so do you have the share of this official's seven-grade county order to speak?" ”

When Li Xuechao felt that he was working hard in vain, a thin middle-aged man riding a tall horse led more than 20 people to the entrance of Baiyangping Village, and after seeing the plaque of the Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall hanging not far away, the middle-aged man who was as thin as a reed stick, strangled the horse's head, got off the horse and came over to check the situation, and couldn't help but ask everyone present curiously: "Dare to ask everyone, which sage is enshrined in this Zeng Gong Ancestral Hall?" ”

Li Xuechao, who was sulking, didn't bother to pay attention to the middle-aged man in an ordinary Confucian robe, but the master next to him replied: "Have you heard of the name of Zeng Guofan's Zeng Butang?" ”

"It turned out to be the ancestral hall of Zeng Butang." The middle-aged man suddenly realized, and hurriedly asked, "May I ask this gentleman, has Zeng Gong's spiritual seat been set up?" If the spiritual seat of Zeng Gong has been installed, can you let me go in and worship and put incense on the pillar? ”

"Dare to make a fool of the people!" Li Xuechao, who was in a big rage, was even more angry when he heard it, and he grabbed the middle-aged man as a punching bag, and roared: "What kind of thing are you, dare to go in and give incense to Zeng Gong now?" Did You Know? This ancestral hall is to be presided over by Wu Chaoyue, the governor of Daqing Lake and Guangzhou, and the opening ceremony of the ancestral hall will be personally presided over by Wu Zhitai, and the incense will be made on the head of his old man! If you let Wu Zhengtai and his old man know that you have taken the lead, see if he doesn't kill your whole family! ”

Hearing Li Xuechao's scolding, the entourage brought by the middle-aged man was all furious, and one of the entourages rolled up his sleeves and was about to come up and slap Li Xuechao, when the middle-aged man hurriedly stopped, Li Xuechao pointed at the entourage and shouted angrily: "Bold!" What do you want to do? Do you know who this official is? Dare to do this to this official, are you tired of life? ”

"Don't blame me, adults." The middle-aged man hurriedly apologized and said, "They don't know that you are an official of the imperial court, and they have offended you a lot, and they hope to forgive them." By the way, this lord, as an official of the imperial court, why do you still do such a rough job yourself? ”

"You don't have to worry about it." Li Xuechao waved his hand angrily, looked at the middle-aged man a little, and asked, "Who are you?" What the hell are you doing here? ”

"I'm here to visit Zengbutang's family for the sake of the dog." The middle-aged man replied casually.

"Visiting Zeng's family about your son?" Li Xuechao became a little interested and asked, "Who is your son?" What is your name? What do I need to visit Zeng's family? ”

"This ......, my lord forgives me, and it is inconvenient to answer below."

The middle-aged man shook his head and refused to answer, and still walked up to leave, but Li Xuechao was furious and shouted: "Stop, why don't you answer what this official asks you?" ”

"Dog, are you tired of life?!" The entourage before couldn't bear it anymore, pointed at Li Xuechao's nose and roared, "Do you know who this master is?" He is the biological father of Wu Zhitai, the governor of Daqing Lake and Guangzhou, and Master Wu! What is your name? What is the official position? ”

"Wu Zhitai's father ......?"

Li Xuechao's chin suddenly opened and dislocated, and when he saw the middle-aged man's calm expression and did not seem to be fake, Li Xuechao sat on a tiger pounce and pounced directly at Wu Xiaoping's feet, kowtowing like pounding garlic, and shouted with a crying voice while holding his chin: "Master Wu forgives sins, Master Wu forgives sins, the lower officials have eyes and don't know Mount Tai, and the dog's eyes look down on people, sir, you must forgive your sins, please forgive your lower officials!" ”

"My lord, please get up quickly, there is only a businessman below, and I don't dare to give you such a big gift."

Wu Xiaoping, who was born as a businessman, knew the rules very well, and he didn't dare to receive Li Xuechao's gift and came to support Li Xuechao in person, but Li Xuechao refused to get up, and while continuing to beg for mercy, he personally wiped the dust of Wu Xiaoping's shoes with his hands......

"Master Wu, your shoes are dirty, please let the lower official wipe them for you, please let the lower official wipe them for you."

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Of course, Wu Xiaoping came to Hunan for the relationship between Wu Chaoyue and Zeng Jijing, and he also came to Hunan in person despite Wu Chaoyue's strong opposition, but Wu Xiaoping did not come to discuss the marriage with the Zeng family, but to discuss with the Zeng family to postpone the marriage date originally scheduled for April this year, the reason is that because of the hiccup of Emperor Xianfeng, according to the rules of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the whole country has to stop marrying for a year.

Wu Chaoyue strongly objected to the cheap dad coming to Hunan in person because of the sparse history, and only vaguely remembered that Su Shun was knocked down by the devil and Cixi and others not long after he became the minister of Gu Ming, but he didn't know the specific time, and he was afraid that this would happen suddenly, causing the cheap dad to encounter any danger in Hunan. However, Wu Xiaoping, the only relatively normal Wu in the old Wu family, preached morality and conscience, knowing that his baby son was sorry for Zeng Jijing, and he was embarrassed to send a messenger or write a letter to inform the Zeng family to delay the marriage, and insisted on coming to Hunan in person to explain and apologize to the Zeng family. - Of course, with the benevolence, righteousness and morality of this era, no matter how much Wu Chaoyue is the governor of the five provinces, he really can't stop the cheap father's decision.

Fortunately for Wu Xiaoping, the Zeng family, a descendant of Zongsheng, is extremely reasonable in this regard, plus Wu Xiaoping personally came to the door to apologize for giving the Zeng family enough face, Zeng Guofan's wife and several brothers of the Zeng family also politely received Wu Xiaoping, and treated Wu Xiaoping, the future in-law, with courtesy, and got along quite well, and also agreed to Wu Xiaoping's request to delay the marriage.

The only thing that bothered Wu Xiaoping in Zeng Guofan's hometown was the entanglement of Li Xuechao from Xiangxiang County, after confirming that Wu Xiaoping's identity was really Wu Chaoyue's cheap father, Li Xuechao was like a piece of kraft candy sticking to Wu Xiaoping's side, constantly waging his tail and begging for pity, constantly flattering and flattering, and digging out his heart to pat Wu Xiaoping's various sycophants, so respectful that Wu Xiaoping, who had already experienced similar scenes in Hubei, couldn't bear it.

Not to mention, Li County's order is really sticky to the right person, Wu Xiaoping, who was born as a businessman, pays attention to harmony and wealth, not as difficult to talk to as the official's father and son, and has read the Four Books and Five Classics for a few years to know what it means to repay the peach, and he really can't resist the overly enthusiastic whiskers of the Li County Order, Wu Xiaoping finally relented, and promised to talk to Wu Chaoyue in the letter about the hard work that Li Xianling made to build an ancestral hall for Zeng Guofan, Li Xuechao was grateful, and kowtowed to Wu Xiaoping and thanked him constantly.

Wu Xiaoping is still a man of words, and when he needed to let his son know that he had successfully arrived at Zeng's house, Wu Xiaoping personally wrote a letter to his son the next day, letting his son know that he had asked the Zeng family to agree to delay the marriage, and by the way, Li Xuechao only took five days to build a first-class ancestral hall for Zeng Guofan. (To be continued.) )