Archibald Philip Primrose, the prime minister of the British Empire, seemed to be a naval maniac on the surface, advocating sparing no effort to develop the navy, but once he found that half of the navy's military strength did not necessarily guarantee that it could contain the rise of the Chinese Empire 100%, he immediately changed his strategy and fooled other countries to fight with the Chinese Empire, while the British Empire, the world's strongest power today, followed these countries to pick up the cheap.

But other countries are not fools, and they are not so easily fooled by England to take advantage of the fire.

In the end, someone helped Primrose to bring troops from countries other than the English Empire into a head-on confrontation with the nascent Chinese Empire, and that person was the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager of the West, Yehenara Xingzhen.

After escaping from Lanzhou, Cixi was escorted by more than 10,000 troops under the command of Tie Liang, the general of the Eight Banners, and fled lifelessly, and later Liangbi, who escaped from Lanzhou, found Cixi with five or six thousand remnants of the defeated army, and brought the news that Emperor Guangxu was captured by the Huaxia army to Cixi.

For Guangxu not to be an opponent, Cixi didn't know if it was to show her composure or really no sadness, her face was very calm, and she just said: "The mourning family knows!" ”

Next, it was Cixi who arranged the advance and retreat, Cixi never went into battle to command the battle, but she was extremely smart, in order to avoid the search of the Huaxia army's airship in the air, she asked Liangbi to command the army to retreat westward in multiple ways and multiple units, while she and Tie Liang took a cavalry of 500 people, dragging four carriages to retreat westward first.

"The desert is lonely and the smoke is straight, and the sun sets over the long river" is a true portrayal of the picture scroll of the northwest territory of China, which seems to be beautiful and romantic, but when people are really in it, it is not so romantic and wonderful.

On the endless Gobi Desert, the overwhelming sandstorms make people discouraged, and they eat gravel rice all day long, let alone wash their faces and bathe, and it is difficult to find even the water to drink.

In the deep palace of the capital, Cixi bathed in fragrant milk every day, but she did not take a bath on the way to the west, and many times it took two or three days to drink the salty and bitter yellow water.

And the carriage riding was bumpy and trembling, so that the buttocks and thighs of Cixi sitting in it were worn out.

When did Cixi, who had lived in the deep palace for many years, suffer like this?

However, the scheming Cixi knew that in order to escape and find a chance to turn the tables, she had to endure hardships and grit her teeth along the way.

But on the way to the west, he found the shadow of the airship of the Huaxia Army in the east air, and Tie Liang ordered the Qing soldiers to find a place to hide.

Cixi's westward retreat strategy played an important role at this time, and the airships of the Huaxia Army in the sky saw traces of many Qing troops fleeing in a hurry on the vast land, and it was difficult to distinguish for a while that there were important targets in the Qing army in the squads that fled in many ways.

At this time, the Huaxia army had completely eliminated the religious forces in the northwest and controlled Lanzhou, but the main infantry was still advancing towards Lanzhou thousands of miles away.

Although Lanzhou has planned to build a railway, but within a year or two it is difficult to build the railway to Lanzhou, the Chinese army's march to carry the baggage can only use cars, donkey carriages, and the road is muddy and bumpy, the car is slower than the speed of the donkey carriage, in the end, can only use all the donkey horses and people's shoulders to carry the baggage, the army is only about 100 miles a day, to enter Lanzhou, the fastest also has more than 10 days.

Due to the lack of troops in Lanzhou, and Cixi used the method of retreating in multiple ways to confuse the Chinese army, the Huaxia army finally failed to capture Cixi, causing Cixi to escape to the outskirts of Urumqi in Xinjiang after nearly a month of bumps on the road.

At this time, Xinjiang was in the hands of the governor Tao Mo and the governor Dong Fuxiang, Cixi became a frightened bird at this time, and she did not even dare to enter Urumqi because the Han people had lost all confidence, but ordered not to be exposed and flee directly to the western suburbs of Urumqi, but to run to Huiyuan City, where the Ili general of the Yellow Banner of Manchuria was stationed by Chang Gung.

Pottery mold, the word Fangzhi, a native of Xiushui, Zhejiang, was a Jinshi in the seventh year of Tongzhi, and was awarded the governor of Xinjiang in the sixteenth year of Guangxu (1891).

After the issuance of the edict of Gengzi's new policy, many local officials were still hesitating, speculating and probing the true intentions of the Qing court, but he dared to be the first in the world, advocating a change of government, his attitude and proposition were quite bold and radical, and his suggestions were mostly based on the content of the system reform, emphasizing learning and imitating Western law, which was rare among the courtiers and officials of the same period, and his attitude even surpassed the reform advocated by the six gentlemen of the Wuxu reform.

Although Cixi could not lead the country to prosperity and strength, her understanding and long-term experience in political struggle were very successful in figuring out people, and her worries about Tao Mo were justified.

Sure enough, a few days later, Hu Zhen sent people to fly to Urumqi in an airship, ignoring the danger of falling the airship blown by a strong wind on the Gobi Desert, to persuade Taomo to return to the newly established Chinese Empire.

The person who came to be a lobbyist on behalf of Hu Zhen was a short and fat man, he had just cut off the braids that the Manchus forced men to keep, and there was always a flattering smile on his face, and his appearance was a little funny and obscene. Thou hast surrendered to the new dynasty and punished thee, but thou hast come to persuade me to surrender again? Come on, drag this person out! ”

This person is Yuan Shikai, after he surrendered, he felt that he had not made an inch, and it was not good to gain a foothold in the new dynasty, so through Li Hongzhang's relationship, he found Hu Zhen and said that he would persuade Xinjiang Governor Tao Mo and Admiral Dong Fuxiang to surrender for the Chinese Empire, and recover Xinjiang without a single soldier.

Hu Zhen felt that if he could recover Xinjiang without spending troops and time, it would be of great significance to consolidate the northwest frontier defense, and Yuan Shikai would recommend himself, so he might as well simply let Yuan Shikai give it a try.

"Slow, Tao Fangzhi, don't say anything about whether you can descend or not, I came from all the way, it's not easy, I'll show you something, if you say pull me out to cut off my head, it's not too late!"

"What else do you want to show me?" Tao Mo didn't really want to take down Yuan Shikai, he just wanted to give him a dismount.

Yuan Shikai took out a square box from his backpack, and frightened several guards around Tao Mo to rush up and press Yuan Shikai.

Tao Mo estimated that Yuan Shikai was not here to send him to death, so he stretched out his hand to block the guards: "Let him open the box and see what it is!" ”

The guards surrounded the pottery mold to prevent Yuan Shikai from assassinating.

Yuan Shikai broke free from the pressure of the guards, stood up and snorted: "Is it necessary for me to come from the capital to Xinjiang, a place where birds don't, to stab you Tao Fangzhi?" ”

"What's that box of yours?"

"Tape recorder!"

"What is a voice recorder?"

"Record people's voices in it, and you can also play them out for people to hear! Now the voice of the emperor of the Chinese Empire is recorded in it! ”

"Ahh Both the pottery mold and the guards found it incredible.

Yuan Shikai twisted a button and released Hu Zhen's voice clearly:

"Tao Fangzhi, Dong Xingwu, hello! Although you were ordered by the Qing court, you have guarded Xinjiang for many years, and you have also guarded the territory for the Chinese nation for many years, which can be described as high merit and hard work, no matter what your choice is in the end, I would like to thank you for your hard work for the Chinese nation for many years of hard work!

However, the Qing court has been destroyed and the Chinese Empire has been established, for the sake of your protection of Xinjiang for many years, please accept the leadership of the new dynasty as soon as possible, so as not to burn Xinjiang and cause misery! Then you will be meritorious men, and everything will be easy to talk about!

Finally, I tell you that although China is large, not an inch of land is superfluous, and no matter what your attitude towards the Chinese Empire is, the Chinese army must march into Xinjiang to keep this vast land for the Chinese nation.

Make a decision now! ”

After listening to the recording of the tape recorder, Tao Mo was stunned for a while before saying, "Is this true?" ”

In the brains of the pottery mold, he still believed in things like letters or holy decrees.

"Really, of course it's true, the pearls are not so true, the emperor said, in order to take care of your letters, he also wrote a letter by hand, which is exactly the same as the words in the tape recorder."

Yuan Shikai said that, and handed over a letter that Hu Zhen personally wrote neatly in small letters. (To be continued.) )