Cixi said angrily: "Come here, immediately send someone to the Prime Minister's Ya'men', check the files, and thoroughly investigate this matter, if it is really An Ruhai who delayed the country's military aircraft, the mourning family will kill him alive!" ”

Qingliang, the assistant minister of the Prime Minister's Ya'men', hurriedly went down to check, this was a fatal time, Cixi was furious, he didn't dare to have the slightest neglect, only half an hour passed, Qingliang returned to the palace to play a report: "Lafayette, the matter has been ascertained, the Prime Minister's Ya'men' An Ruhai's head of the telegram, thought it was just Fengtian's alarmism, 'privately' withheld the telegram, which led to the fall of the Beiyang Naval Division, and the two urgent telegrams were sent to the Prime Minister's Ya'men', and there was no signature of the Minister General and the Deputy Minister. -”

Cixi was furious and shouted: "The people who come will immediately detain An Ruhai, put Ling Chi to death, send a decree, confiscate all his family property, and exile the whole family to the border of Ningguta, and never return!" ”

Xu Tong then reported: "Lafayette, although this matter was caused by An Ruhai's unauthorized seizure of intelligence, one is that Li Hongzhang has governed Beiyang for many years, yes, Beiyang's armament is lax, and he is unprepared for defense, so that the Japanese army is attacking, and he is unprepared, where is there war preparedness at all, and the second is that Li Hongzhang is acting in the 'door' of the Prime Minister's Affairs, and now in addition to such things, Li Hongzhang is also responsible." ”

Cixi replied: "Well, Li Hongzhang is indispensable to deal with the sin of inappropriateness, and has issued a decree to dismiss Li Hongzhang from the errand of the Minister of Military Aircraft and the Prime Minister's Affairs Ya'men, retain the post of Wu Yingdian Scholar, and let him go to Guangdong to take over as the governor of Liangguang." Rong Lu is also not suitable to sit in the position of the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, for such a long time, Beiyang still has no appearance, remove the position of the governor of Ronglu Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, and give the secretary of the military department to concurrently serve as the minister of the prime minister's affairs Ya'men' General Office, and Wang Wenshao temporarily acts as the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang. ”

Sheng Xuanhuai was full of resentment, but he was only a minister of the General Office of the Railway, from a second-grade official, now that the new policy was suspended, his position was even more marginalized, and his right to speak in the court could basically be ignored, Cixi dealt with it like this, and he had no way to do it.

The holy decree was handed down, and when Li Hongzhang in the heavy army got the will, he instead showed a smile on his face after being relieved, and said: "Xingsun, tomorrow we will set off and rush to Liangguang, this capital can't stay, you can also go to Shanghai, put the nearest 'fine' force on the General Telegraph Bureau, and throw aside the errand of the General Railway Administration, anyway, there is nothing to deal with, Youqiao, you rush to Guangdong with me, alas, '' all your life, you can finally hide in a corner to recuperate, the old man is tired, after all, he has to take a rest." ……”

Zhang Peilun said: "My lord, we can't just forget it, there are still many important people in the court and the middle of the country to 'befriend' with the adults, as long as there is a little activity, it is not difficult for Lafayette to take back his life!" ”

Li Hongzhang shook his head and said: "The mountain rain 'wants' to come to the wind and full of buildings, it's not that I can't stay in the capital, but I don't want to stay in the capital, let's go, go as fast as possible, go slowly, we can't go if we want to, this mess is a mess, I don't want to go down anymore, call Liu Buchan, who is still staying in Lushun, and ask him to stay in Port Arthur in the future, don't go back to Weihaiwei, and assist Zhang Jianzhi in garrisoning the three eastern provinces." ”

Sheng Xuanhuai sighed and said: "My lord, it's just that let's go like this, this breath is really unbearable, obviously it was Rong Lu's inaction, which led to the destruction of the Beiyang Naval Division, but completely put the responsibility on you, this ......"

Li Hongzhang said: "Xingsun, don't think so much, the Queen Mother Lafayette has long had a guess about our Beiyang, even if Beiyang is not destroyed this time, it will be dismantled in the future, but it is so self-destructive The Great Wall, in the future, I see what the imperial court will fight against the two jackals of Japan and Tsarist Russia!" Forget it, these things are not in charge of my husband, Bismarck was right back then, I play with an old 'woman' and a child every day, and I will never be able to do anything, alas, let's go......"

Zhang Peilun asked, "Lord Zhongtang, what will happen to our Huai army next?" If you leave, the Huai army is still stationed in the Gyeonggi area, and in the hands of Rong Lu and others, I am afraid that in a few years, the Huai army will be dismantled by them......"

Li Hongzhang smiled and said, "How many years? Who knows what the next few years will hold? I can't say it, no one in the world can say it's good, the broken house of the Qing Dynasty may collapse at any time, not to mention the Huai Army, let them do it, Ronglu They want to deal with the Huai Army, and it is not so easy to break up the Huai Army, these are all our soldiers. ”

Li Hongzhang's guess is not wrong, but whether he can go or not is two words.

On the third day of Li Hongzhang's departure, a telegram from Heilongjiang arrived at the imperial court.

At the beginning of the early dynasty, Xu Yongyi, the secretary of the military department who temporarily acted for the war, reported the urgent telegram from Heilongjiang.

Xu Yongyi said: "Lafayette, last night, the minister received an urgent telegram from Lord Enze of Heilongjiang in the Ministry of War, yesterday the Far East Governor of the Tsarist Russian Empire, Kuropatkin, led tens of thousands of troops into Heilongjiang, the soldiers were divided into two routes, directly attacking Harbin and Mudanjiang, the defenders of Heilongjiang and the Tsarist Russian army fought fiercely all night, and now there is no report of the results of the battle, Lord Enze, ask the court for rapid support!" ”

Cixi was taken aback, now Japan has just sent troops to raid Weihaiwei, breaking up the Beiyang Naval Division, and then Tsarist Russia sent troops to Heilongjiang, this, this is a good discussion between the two families, it was premeditated!

Cixi hurriedly asked, "What about Enze, what else did Enze say?" ”

Xu Yongyi hurriedly handed the telegram to Cixi.

Cixi took a closer look at the telegram, and sure enough, Enze said in the telegram: "The Tsarist Russian army is violent, it has entered the territory of Heilongjiang for more than 300 miles, and the troops are directed at Harbin, and the Qing army's general Zhao Shixiao is fighting a 'fierce' battle with the Russian army, and now the follow-up forces of Tsarist Russia are also urgently mobilized, I am afraid that it will not be long before they will wave their troops into the Kou, and the Qing court will decide." ”

Cixi gasped, this is difficult to do, Zhang Yi's Chinese tiger is not there, Tsarist Russia took the opportunity to invade, what can I do, just relying on the more than 10,000 people in Heilongjiang (Cixi does not know the situation in Heilongjiang today), it will not last long at all, even if the troops are transferred from Fengtian, without Zhang Yi to suppress the formation, can the army of Tsarist Russia still be between the two! Cixi roared: "Hurry, hurry, immediately send a telegram to the American Legation, urging Zhang Jianzhi to return to China to fight!" Cixi sat down on the dragon chair and thought about it, no, no! It's not enough to just rely on Zhang Jianzhi's hope, no one knows when Zhang Jianzhi will be able to return to China. Even if you get up immediately after receiving the telegram, I am afraid that it will take nearly a month to be able to reach the country, and even if you take over the defense immediately after arriving in the country, you will need a few days to understand the situation of the war, so more than a month has passed, and I don't know if the armies of the three eastern provinces can hold out until that time!