On December 28, 1908, the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu.

Beijing City, Inner City Daqing Gate.

Standing on the city tower, you can see the Temple of Heaven and the Xiannong Altar in the outer city, but generally speaking, not everyone is qualified to stand up, and if there is no will, even the chief eunuch cannot stand on the gate of the Qing Dynasty.

Beijing city was divided into two inner and outer cities is the Ming Dynasty Jiajing period of the matter, the Ming court at that time originally planned to build a circle of outer city outside the inner city, in order to strengthen the defense of the capital, but helpless national funds are empty, and finally only built an outer city in the south, so it is also called the south city, overlooking the Beijing city, that is a "Lu" shape.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, King Chuang's army was the first to break through the southern city, but it was a pity that King Chuang did not have the opportunity to sit in the world, and finally became the master of the north and south cities of Beijing It was the Eight Banners who went south from outside the Guan.

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, in order to facilitate the rule and also for the safety of the imperial city, all the Han people who originally lived in the inner city were driven to the outer city, and the inner city was placed with eight banner soldiers, which were distributed around the Forbidden City, and the inner city became the banner man of the world, and the Han people could only live in the southern city.

More than 200 years have passed, the old rule of separation between the north and the south has continued, and now there is a saying in Beijing that "the east is rich and the west is rich, the north is poor and the south is cheap", among which the "south cheap" is to say that the people who live in the south city are the people who go to Beijing to take the exam, and the rich businessmen who have a lot of money in their pockets, as long as you do not enter the flag, you can only live in the south city, as for the flag people, even if they are so poor that they only have one set of clothes to wear, they will never go to the south to live in the south at a low price, of course, visiting the eight alleys does not count.

However, this old-fashioned rule gradually did not work, the embassy of the foreigners was set up in the inner city, and the imperial court did not even dare to let go of a fart, so they simply turned a blind eye to the move of the Han people in the south to the north, and many poor bannermen who were originally struggling in the north of the inner city also took the opportunity to transfer their houses out and went to live in the south city with silver.

The inner city of Beijing and the outer city are separated by a Zhengyangmen, which is commonly known as the Great Front Gate, and you can see the railway station in the south when you stand on the tower of the city gate, where the five ministers who went abroad to inspect the constitution were bombed.

Zhengyangmen to the north is the Daqing Gate, and after the Daqing Gate is the Royal Road, which is the Forbidden City.

When the Eight-Nation Coalition Army was killed in the capital, the final battle broke out in the area of the Great Qing Gate, the flag soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and later the Chinese and foreign countries negotiated peace, the imperial court wiped the blood of the flag soldiers, and reconciled with the foreigners, now the embassy area of the foreigners is next to the Great Qing Gate, called Dongjiaomin Lane, next to the Forbidden City, every morning, the flag soldiers of the Forbidden City can hear the foreign tone of the embassy guards shouting and drilling, sometimes the foreign soldiers patrol to the vicinity of the Qing Gate, and also make a few whistles at the flag soldiers―――――― The imperial court and foreign ministers called this "friendship between China and foreign countries", the revolutionaries called it "loss of power and humiliation of the country", and the bannermen called it "seeing the western scenery".

No matter how you call it, the current situation is that on the edge of the imperial city of the dignified Qing Kingdom, there is a country within a country and a district outside the country.

Whether it is a country within a country, or a foreign area, this does not affect the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, regardless of whether the foreign soldiers patrol, and whether there are foreign devil reporters standing outside the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Gate must be opened twice a day in the sound of bells, one is the military aircraft bosses go to the court, and the other is the military aircraft bosses go down to the court, if you catch up with the court, the Qing Gate will be opened more times, of course, the emperor can not often call the court, but the work of the military aircraft department must be dealt with in a timely manner, and the imperial city will go to the office before dawn every day, It's not an easy thing to do as a military aircraft.

Now, the closed Daqing Gate slowly opened in the sound of bells, several two shoulders rushed out, the little eunuchs carried the military aircraft bosses out of the imperial city, and the official sedan chairs waiting outside the Daqing Gate greeted them one after another, and invited the military aircraft bosses to the sedan chair under the escort of the armed Goshha.

As soon as the gong sounded, the sedan chairs were lifted step by step, the sedan chair drivers stepped on the snow on the royal road, carried the sedan chair to their respective mansions, the Goshha on both sides of the road was like facing the enemy, waving the whip to drive the passers-by away, since the assassination of Zhang Zhidong, the ministers and princes in Beijing were all trembling, and many people had begun to inlay iron plates on the carriage and sedan chair.

The guard of honor is also a full set, the tall card, the deacon card, the silk umbrella, the incense burner, all the attention has not fallen, although the state affairs are sluggish now, but this face work can not be lost, the officialdom is to pay attention to a face, the prestige of the military aircraft boss is to be enough.

Among the military bigwigs, Prince Su Shanqi was the first to return to his home, and the reason was very simple: his Su Wang's Mansion was on the edge of Dongjiaomin Lane. When the Eight-Nation Alliance came to kill, the Su Wangfu was also the first unlucky among the kings' mansions, a group of foreign soldiers set fire and burned the iron hat palace to the ground, and even the "Hades Tent" in the palace was burned clean, almost cheapening the poor people who rented the king's field.

However, the iron hat king is the iron hat king, as long as the iron hat is still there, building the palace is the same as playing, but after a year, the Su Wangfu is completely new, much more generous than the old mansion, although it is not as good as the Qingwang Mansion, but because of the foreigners, there are more foreign things in the palace than other princes.

No, before Shanqi's sedan chair fell, the doorman at that incident grabbed the phone and reported to the house, and when Shanqi came out of the sedan chair, a group of people in the house had already knelt in front of the door to welcome the prince back to the house.

"Excuse me, get up." Shanqi waved his hand, and before he could lead the people into the main gate, he saw a four-wheeled carriage without any sign coming towards the king's house, and before Goshha could stop the carriage that had collided with the king's chariot, the carriage had stopped, and a man dressed as a scribe came out of the carriage.

"Call him over." Shanqi had seen the man's appearance clearly, waved his hand, and ordered the people in the house to go back to the house first, and ordered Goshha to bring the man to him.

"Hello Wangye." The man walked up to Shanqi and bowed 90 degrees.

"When did Mr. Kawashima return to Beijing? If I'm not mistaken, it's only been half a month since you returned to Japan. Shanqi asked.

That person's name is Kawashima Naniwa, the identity on the surface is the translator of the Japanese Legation in China, the rise of the Qing court's new policy, the management of the police academy, this person was hired as an instructor of the police academy, and Prince Su Shanqi is the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, in charge of police administration, the two met, Kawashima Naniwa also became a frequent visitor to the Su Palace, in the words of Kawashima Naniwa, their friendship has "crossed the border".

Originally, because the Suwang Mansion was burned by foreign soldiers, Shanqi had a grudge against foreigners, but since the rise of the Southern Revolutionary Army, his Suwang Mansion can often see foreigners coming and going, from Japanese ronins to American adventurers, from British politicians to German fire merchants, the result of many foreigners coming and going is that the nickname "Devil Six" of the old King Gong fell on the head of King Su, and Guy Shanqi happened to be the sixth.

"I took a warship back to Tianjin, and as soon as I arrived in Tianjin, I took the train back to Beijing, and when I got off the train, I heard that the prince was worried about the formation of the cabinet, and I came to give advice to the prince." Kawashima Nanisu straightened up and said.

"Mr. Kawashima is well-informed." Shanqi frowned, and the folds on his face became denser.

In order to win the hearts and minds of the people, the Qing court set up advisory bureaus in various provinces to win over the constitutionalists, and at the same time prepared a consultative council in the capital to prepare for the formation of a cabinet. In the past few years, the constitutionalists in various provinces have repeatedly gone to Beijing to make their case and ask the imperial court to establish a constitutional monarchy as soon as possible, but they have not been able to do so, and the constitutionalists have long complained about it.

On the one hand, the provincial constitutionalists wanted to stuff their own people into the Council and the cabinet, and on the other hand, because the prince of the banner people was unwilling to delegate power, and insisted on stuffing half of the banner people into the cabinet.

As a result, the cabinet could not be set up for a long time, the constitutionalists were suspicious of the sincerity of the imperial court's constitution, the revolutionaries took the opportunity to fan the flames, and the bannermen were even more agitated, refusing to let the Han people share power.

"Actually, in my opinion, the responsible cabinet can be handed over to the constitutionalist Han forces." Naniwa Kawashima said.

"It's easy to say, do you think the princes are as easy to talk as this king?" Shanqi sneered. This is indeed too modest, how could the banner people be willing to give up the power that they finally took away from Yuan Shikai and Han Chen? If you don't talk about others, even if you are good, you won't agree.

"The prince may not know that in our Great Japanese Empire, there is not only a responsible cabinet, but above the responsible cabinet, there is also a 'senator' who is free from the cabinet, and on some major issues, the senator can even subdue the cabinet. If your country wants to learn from the constitutional monarchy, it is time to learn from the system of our Imperial Japan. ”

"Oh? I would like to hear about it. ”

"It seems inconvenient to talk about it here, can the prince move to the Japanese legation?"

"This ...... Something seems wrong. Shanqi hesitated.

"King Gong and Zhenguo Gong are already waiting at the embassy, and they are also very concerned about the affairs of the cabinet, and they believe that among the great powers, only the Great Japanese Empire is sincere in treating your country, because we are all Asiatic races, and I deeply agree with this high opinion." Naniwa Kawashima said.

"King Gong has been idle for the past two days, wasn't he busy building some 'Zongshe Party' a few days ago? Why, now are you planning to build a 'senatorial council'? Shanqi shook his head.

"The Japanese embassy will not go, Mr. Kawashima will take the post of this king, invite King Gong and them, and we will discuss the matter of this patriarch in the palace. Today's Great Qing Kingdom is a dilapidated house, if you want not to fall, you have to keep tinkering, this tinker can only be the descendants of us who love Xin Jueluo, and others can't count on it. ”

……

Prince Su and King Xiao Gong did not want to see the dilapidated house of the Great Qing Kingdom fall, and they were desperately waving their hands, trying to grasp any life-saving straw that could be grasped.

But more people today don't care how the dilapidated house will fall, they are more concerned about how to escape before the house falls, so as not to die together.

Tianjin, Purple Bamboo Forest, on the side of the British Concession.

An inconspicuous two-storey small gray building stands at the intersection of Victoria Road, this small western-style building looks inconspicuous, even a little shabby, only a few people know, it is also the industry in the name of Zheng Yi, the comprador of the British Swire & Co. in Tianjin, and the bricks that built it are also very proven, that is not ordinary bricks, but the city bricks of Tianjin City. In 1900, Zhili made a fuss and boxing, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army entered Beijing, drove away the Queen Mother and the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and then negotiated peace between China and foreign countries, and there was a provision in the terms of this peace that after the retreat of the coalition forces, the city wall of Tianjin City must be completely demolished, this project was eventually contracted by several Chinese compradors, Zheng Yizhi was one of them, and the demolished city bricks finally became the luxury villas of these people, and the extra bricks were not abandoned, either the warehouse was built or the courtyard was built, and this small building on Victoria Road was one of Zheng Yizhi's courtyards.

But now, it is not Zheng Yizhi who lives in this small western-style building, nor is it any of the Zheng family, but Yuan Shikai, a former important minister of the Qing Dynasty and the "Beiyang Pillar Stone".

Since following the British minister to the British concession, Yuan Shikai has been borrowing here, Zheng Yizhi was planning to vacate his luxury villa, but Yuan Shikai refused, in Yuan Shikai's opinion, it is safer here, not only the location is hidden, but also an elevator is installed in the building, which can go straight to the basement, where there is an exit, leading to the main sewer of the concession, in case someone comes to catch him, he will escape from there.

After living in this small western-style building for a few days, Yuan Shikai's anxious mind gradually calmed down, put on a posture of escapism, closed the door tightly, and saw no one except his henchmen, not to mention, now not many people know his exact whereabouts, and the Qing court's envoys abroad are still busy submitting notes in the host country, asking all countries not to contain Yuan Shikai who is seeking refuge.

The revolutionary army in the south was in full swing, and the Qing court in the north was noisy and suspicious, and no one dared to slack off, only he Yuan Shikai stood outside the bureau, quietly watching the development of the situation.

After a few days of careful consideration, Yuan Shikai has completely seen the general trend of the world, the fall of the Qing Dynasty is already the desire of the people, and no one can change it, the question is, who will destroy it?

By the revolutionaries of the South? It seems a bit suspenseful. Although Xiong Chengji in Anhui now occupies Luzhou, he is in a corner of the trap, and is surrounded by the old Yi army and the patrol battalion led by Jiang Guidi, the veteran general of the Qing army, with a lack of food and ammunition, low morale, and the whole army will be wiped out at any time. As for the "Commander-in-Chief Zhao" entrenched in Wuhan, I am afraid that it is also very dangerous, the two Qing armies are flanked and the waterways are advancing together, it is he Yuan Shikai who led the Beiyang Army to sit in Wuhan, and he is not completely sure of victory, not to mention a group of hungry people who have just been armed?

Therefore, this historical task of cleaning up the situation and reorganizing the mountains and rivers is probably going to fall on the shoulders of him Yuan.

"The building is small enough to accommodate the knees, and the eaves are high and the old trees are together. Kaixuan Ping Beidou, turning over too low. ”

Yuan Shikai finished writing the big characters, read it softly, felt quite satisfied, put down the brush, took a pair of hot towels handed over by his second son Yuan Kewen, and wiped his hands.

"Kewen, do you think my father's calligraphy has made some progress?" Yuan Shikai asked.

Yuan Kewen glanced at the words and said, "Father has been a lot more determined these days, and the writing is not so messy." ”

Yuan Shikai smiled slightly and said: "My father knows that you are a fake scribe, and I don't look down on my father's calligraphy, maybe in your opinion, the comment 'not messy' is already very good." ”

"The son didn't deliberately collide with his father, but he really felt that his father was a person who did great things, and he spent his time on this calligraphy, which inevitably outweighed the losses." Yuan Kewen said boldly, changed his words, and said: "Several aunts are now in the hands of the imperial court, and they don't know whether they live or die, and their son is worried, and he has no intention of saying flattering words these days. ”

Yuan Shikai ran out of the capital, but the family members who stayed in the city all fell into the hands of the imperial court, several of them were still Yuan Shikai's favored concubines, as well as several half-sisters of Yuan Kewen, as for those relatives in Xiangcheng's hometown, although they had sent someone to pick them up, they didn't run as fast as the telegram, and they were still looked at by the local government in the end.

Yuan Shikai sighed, put the towel on the radiator, walked back to the screen with his hands behind his back, looked at the freehand painting on the screen, and said quietly: "Kewen, there is one thing that you are not as good as your eldest brother, that is, concentration!" Mount Tai collapsed in front of him and his face did not change, this is the big husband. You're reading too hard, not far-sighted enough, not thinking enough through. Now that the southern rebellion has broken out, and the imperial court is busy putting out fires, where is there time to be distracted to think about anything else? Even if the imperial court wants to destroy my Yuan clan, you have to weigh it carefully and ask me if someone Yuan agrees? The Qing Dynasty is a two-hundred-year-old tree, and I am the axe of cutting down trees, although most of the people in those banners are confused, but they are not without understanding people, don't do anything too desperately, force people to a dead end, and then scatter in two, and no one can fall well. ”

"Then why did the court send someone to arrest my father? He also slandered his father for killing the Emperor Daxing? Yuan Kewen asked.

"That's because the father was a caged bird at that time, and of course they had no scruples." Yuan Shikai sat down on a warm chair and glanced at Yuan Kewen.

"And now, my father has been out of the cage, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and there are foreigners to protect him, and the Beiyang New Army is also trained for his father, and the destruction of the revolutionary army depends on the Beiyang New Army.

This kind of self-confidence is not without reason, the Qing court has never issued an edict saying that he Yuan Shikai poisoned Guangxu, and the statement of "killing the Emperor Daxing" is only limited to rumors, which can be seen that the imperial court is afraid of the Beiyang group.

Of course, Yuan Shikai's sudden downfall cannot but give the people of the world an explanation.

The Qing court charged Yuan Shikai with "embezzlement of military salaries" and "arbitrary killing".