The Forbidden City, the Palace of Nourishing the Heart.

The atmosphere in the East Warm Pavilion of the Yangxin Palace is solemn and depressing, the Empress Dowager Longyu of the Great Qing Kingdom sits on the edge of the kang and wipes her tears, and the ministers and eunuchs who are kneeling on the ground are also howling, because His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Qing Kingdom is crying non-stop, so now it is no longer possible to continue to participate in this court meeting, and is being escorted back to the dormitory by the eunuchs.

Today's call did not summon Hanchen, the people present were either banner people or Mongolian princes, and the fate of this dynasty has long been linked, the so-called solidarity and weal and woe, the death of the country means that they will lose all their privileges, can they not cry?

The current imperial court is crumbling, the broken house of the Qing Dynasty will collapse at any time, the broken house repairer Li Hongzhang has long been ancient, and now who can be counted on a loyal person to repair this broken house? Yuan Shikai? That's luring the wolf into the house.

"Lure the wolf into the room", this sentence was said by Xiao Gong Wang Puwei just now, and he was the only one in the audience who did not cry, even the recognized Qing Dynasty "traitor" Qing Wang Yixuan followed the Queen Mother to shed a few tears, no wonder the Queen Mother didn't give Xiao Gong Wang a good look just now.

It is false to say that King Xiao Gong has no feelings for the Great Qing Kingdom, he himself is the bloodline of Aixin Jueluo, an authentic clan, can he not care about the fate of this dynasty? A few days ago, the Hubei military newspaper was submitted to Gong Mansion one after another, and Xiao Gong Wang had not closed his eyes for several nights, sitting in the study and working with a few princes and disciples, but there was no way.

Now the mobile force that the Qing court can use is the six towns of the Beiyang New Army, but among these six towns, the only one that the imperial court can rest assured of is the first town, because most of the soldiers in this town are banner people, and the imperial court is one heart, as for the other five towns, not only are most of the soldiers Han Chinese, but also the official generals are also drawn by Yuan Shikai, who can guarantee that they are more loyal to Yuan Shikai or more loyal to the imperial court? Since the revolutionary army's "telegram" was issued, announcing that it supported Yuan Shikai as the "republican commander", some people in the Beiyang Army began to jump up and down, in this regard, the imperial court is not unheard, but it can't take action, this kind of people's hearts change greatly, stabilizing the army's heart is the most important, as for Yuan Shikai, now I'm afraid he has to jump for a few days.

Speaking of the "telegram", what annoys people is not only the future of Yuan Shikai, but also the itching of hatred is that in that telegram, the revolutionary army vowed to move eastward, take the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River in one go, hit Jiangning and Guangdong, and cut off the source of food and salary for the imperial court. Yangzhou, Suzhou and other places, but before they landed, news of the revolutionary army's westward expedition came from Hubei.

Why is this revolutionary army so cunning? Leaving the rich southeast not to fight, but going west, I just caught the court off guard. But think about it carefully, the imperial court really can't help but be fooled, now the national treasury is empty, and the new deal is to burn silver, which is inseparable from the wealth of Jiangnan, in case the revolutionary army really pounces on Jiangnan and seizes the tax source of the imperial court, this battle does not need to be fought, and without silver pay, the Beiyang Army will also turn into a revolutionary army. Besides, Anhui's revolutionary army is still making trouble, and there is a possibility of going south at any time, even if the Jiujiang Revolutionary Army does not fight Jiangnan, who can guarantee that the Anhui rebels will not covet it? Who can guarantee that the party in Jiangsu and Zhejiang will not tear the flag and rebel? Since the ninth town of the Jiangsu New Army has rebelled and the ground in Jiangsu is empty, even if the revolutionary army does not attack Jiangsu, the Beiyang Army will have to go south to reinforce it.

What is "hemp rod to beat the wolf and be afraid at both ends"? Here it is. The southeast cannot be unprotected, and the west cannot be without reinforcements, and the Beiyang Army is unreliable, but the imperial court is overstretched, and there are sufferings: the progress of the new army in the south is too slow, and too many foreign students have been mixed in, which is unreliable; The patrol battalion was dull, the equipment was outdated, and the power of the Brotherhood was too strong to be counted on; As for the Beiyang Army, there is still a Beijing division to defend, and the northeast must also be guarded, and they can't all be sent to the south. Now no one in this court has the spell to sprinkle beans into soldiers, and seeing that he can take care of the east, he can't take care of the west, and there is not only one loyal minister in this court who has been white-headed overnight.

The palace maids walked cautiously, speaking softly and slowly, for fear that one would accidentally annoy the queen mother, and they would have to follow His Majesty the Emperor Daxing.

A moment later, a small military plane walked outside the Yangxin Hall and shouted in a low voice: "Queen Mother, just now the British minister sent a telegram, saying that the British warship in Hankou sent a telegram back that the Jiujiang rebels had entered the city of Wuchang and exchanged fire with the official army, and the battle was fierce. ”

All the people in the Heart Cultivation Hall stopped choking, wiped the tears from the corners of their eyes, and turned their eyes to the Queen Mother. Sooner or later, the Jiujiang Revolutionary Army will attack Wuhan, this is the consensus of everyone, but when the revolutionary army really attacked Wuhan, everyone hoped that it was just a rumor.

"Got it. Send a telegram back to the British minister to see if you can ask the British warships to help in the war? Longyu sighed, waited for the small military plane outside the door to retreat, raised his head and glanced at the princes and ministers in the Dongnuan Pavilion, and finally stopped his gaze on King Qing's side and said, "King Qing, Yuan Shikai is still honest these days, right?" “

Yi Xuan hurriedly said: "Honest, very honest." Every day, in addition to the office, there is no other entertainment, and after returning home, he also closes his door to thank customers, either writing or reading, and then pointing and drawing on the map, giving advice for the Beiyang Army to reinforce the south. Wang Zhanyuan and Lu Yongxiang, who went south to reinforce Hankou this time, were also personally ordered by Yuan Shikai, and the two were known as the Beiyang generals. ”

Longyu nodded and didn't speak again, and the others naturally didn't dare to be bored, so the heart cultivation hall was quiet again.

Just when everything was quiet, a shout rang out outside: "Slave Zaifeng, please St. Ann!" ”

"Call him in." The Empress Dowager Longyu wiped her eyes with Jinpa, and a eunuch next to her walked out and called the gloomy regent in.

"Regent, what are you doing when you're not sitting at the military plane?" Longyu asked.

"Queen Mother, just now the telegraph room of the Military Aircraft Department received a telegram from Shanghai, the stakes are very high, and the slave alone can't be the master, so he has to come to ask Yi to make a decision." Zaifeng handed over a sealed transcript of the telegram.

Longyu didn't dare to take the telegram, just glanced at it, and said: "I can't be the master alone, there are no outsiders here, and there is no Hanchen, you just read it out loud, and everyone will refer to it together." ”

"This ...... The Queen Mother still read the telegram first, and then talk about anything else. Zaifeng's voice trembled a little.

Longyu didn't insist, opened the cover of the telegram, took out the manuscript, glanced at it, jumped off the kang in shock, the hand holding the telegram trembled, raised the other finger to Zaifeng, and was about to say something, but his eyes were dark, his hand was loosened, and the whole person leaned back and fainted on the kang.

"Queen Mother! Dowager! ”

"Master, you can't have three long and two short!"

……

Seeing this, everyone immediately howled, and the eunuchs and palace maids helped Longyu to sit up, pinching people and shouting at the imperial doctor, and there was chaos in the heart cultivation hall.

In the panic, the back-up copy of the telegram was trampled on several times, but no one dared to pick it up.

They're scared.