Qin Lang was trapped - due to Elizabeth's surveillance and constant urging, he had to devote all his time and energy to completing that chemical engineering manual, and could not do anything else; On the other side of the globe, Yuan Shikai also found him trapped - the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, the Minister of the Hou Party, the Minister of the Imperial Party, the Minister of the United States and the Minister of the United Kingdom, all of them asked him to make his statement, but he was in a dilemma. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

It was a question of who he should choose as his allegiance, the Empress Dowager or the Emperor, which could not be decided at once - it had not been a question before; In the past, everyone could see that regardless of political power, military power or influence, the Queen Mother had an overwhelming advantage, and she was a natural object of allegiance......

But now, the problem has become complicated, the emperor has the support of the great powers, and Britain and the United States have publicly stated their attitude and announced that they will send troops to maintain his dignity and power, so that he and the queen mother will become equal, and at such a time, everything is no longer clear. As a minister, a minister who has mastered the army, he needs to think for a long time to determine whose side he is on.

It's gambling, and the stakes are his status, power, future, and life. If the bet is correct, the future will undoubtedly be bright; But if the bet is wrong, there is no future.

He needs time.

But in reality, he didn't have time.

"In another hour, the first batch of expeditionary force soldiers will land in Dagu, if Lord Yuan can't show his attitude, you and your army will become the target of the expeditionary force's attack. Believe me, if that happens, it will be a sad tragedy. Yi Shui said, with a sad expression that matched his speech, as if it was not Yuan Shikai's new army that was about to become the target of the mercenary, but another Umbrella mercenary.

It's a show – but not exactly a show. After all, over the past few months, the Forces nouvelles soldiers have been rigorously trained by the Umbrella Military Advisory Corps, led by Major Shepard and Captain Webb, and to a certain extent, they are not much different from the Umbrella recruits. So Yi Shui's statement is easy to understand, it is undoubtedly a tragedy for a mercenary sent by the company to eliminate an army trained by a military adviser sent by the company.

It's tragic. He shook his head secretly. The company's military advisers must have been very sad that they had been torn for months and that their results had been reduced in the fire, and that it was only because of one man's hesitation, which was unfortunate; It was only in order to avoid this misfortune that Yi Shui thought it was necessary for him to convince Yuan Shikai.

However, Yuan Shikai is not an easy target to convince. Of course, like the vast majority of his colleagues, he feared Britain and the United States, as well as any of the other great powers, and did not have the courage to confront them – but he was equally afraid of the Empress Dowager, who had ruled China for many years, and the power and power she wielded, which was a much more serious problem. It was clear that unless the Emperor could knock out his opponent once and for all this time, it would be extremely unwise to side with him openly. The British and Americans could not always protect the Emperor, and once the intervention army left and the Empress Dowager was not completely defeated, she would quickly regain her strength and eradicate all the enemies, as well as ministers like him who were on the wrong side.

What is a disaster? This is the disaster.

Yuan Shikai looked at Yi Shui with a bitter expression. "Mr. Yi, can't you give me a little time to think about it?" He needed time to consider, at the very least, how far the British and Americans intended to go, whether they were merely defending the Emperor's power, as they had openly advertised, or whether they were intending to assist the Emperor in destroying all his enemies in return for it.

Yi Shui must know the answer, he is the commander of the American intervention force, but Yuan Shikai can't ask his question directly, at least this is an obvious offense. And there was another person in the room, the emperor's representative. Even though he was pretending to be drinking tea, it didn't mean he couldn't hear anything.

So, he could only delay as much time as possible.

But this can only be delusional.

"Nope." Yi Shui replied with a firm tone, fully indicating that there was no room for bargaining now, "You only have one hour...... he glanced at his watch, "Fifty-five minutes." As soon as the troops landed, they immediately eliminated the nearest enemy forces as a warning. ”

His threat made Yuan Shikai a little angry. "Dagu Fort ......"

"Don't worry about the battery." Yi Shui interrupted him, "There's another group of negotiators there. But if negotiations fail, the twelve-inch guns of Her Majesty's battleship Collingwood will destroy these obstacles. ”

"The Emperor's ......"

"I think His Majesty the Emperor will love the decisive actions of the Royal Navy." Yi Shui interrupted Yuan Shikai again, "Since we are reinforcements invited by His Majesty, of course we should be thorough and punish those ministers and soldiers who are not loyal to him for Your Majesty. ”

He moved a little closer. "Lord Yuan, are you loyal enough to your Imperial Majesty?"

"To the emperor, of course Yuan is loyal." Yuan Shikai swore that this was the only way, otherwise the intervention army that was about to land in Dagu would really attack him, but he still didn't want to give a clear reply - it was still too risky, and there was still no indication that the Queen Mother, who was above the emperor, would be completely overthrown, and he wanted to be cautious.

"Mr. Yi, Yuan does need a little time." He pleaded.

Once again, the request was denied. "I won't give you any time, Lord Yuan." Yi Shui shook his head, "You can't run away from this question all the time. ”

But in fact, Yuan Shikai just wanted to avoid this problem. If possible, he would rather hide somewhere to serve as a governor...... It doesn't have to be too far away, Shandong can, in short, not have to lead an army to be stationed in the places that the Anglo-American coalition will inevitably occupy and pass through, waiting like a fool for the enemy to come to the door, and at the same time have to bear the charge of not being loyal enough to the emperor; Any official would do his best to prevent such an unfortunate thing from happening to him, but he hit it right and couldn't avoid it.

He couldn't abandon his post and run away without permission. Yuan Shikai knew very well that no matter who the final victor was, the emperor, or the empress dowager, no one would tolerate this kind of behavior. He could only stay in Tianjin, and made a difficult choice under the gaze and urging of a hateful fake foreign devil.

"What is your choice, Lord Yuan, the Emperor, or the Empress Dowager." Yi Shui's voice hissed.

A fake foreign devil like a ghost!

Although it didn't make much sense, Yuan Shikai was still annoyed by Yi Shui's aggressive attitude—but more often than not, he was distraught.

He stood up and walked around the room like a sleepy beast. Yi Shui stared at him for a while, shrugged his shoulders, and turned his head to the envoy of Emperor Guangxu, who was still drinking tea seriously, and gave him a look. The envoy understood and stood up. "Lord Yuan, please listen to what Tan has to say......"

If Qin Lang was here, he would be very surprised, the envoy sent by Emperor Guangxu was Tan Sitong. Rumors say that he has been arrested, imprisoned and about to be executed, but in reality, it is a rumor. The palace coup of 1897 was completely different from the one that took place in 1898 in another time and space, with two main differences: first, the emperor had not yet been placed under house arrest, but the vast majority of the orders he issued had lost their validity; Second, several important figures of the Restorationists escaped.

Suffice it to say, the intelligence that Washington received was almost always wrong. But it was not Conger's fault, because he got the news that was what everyone said, that the emperor was under house arrest, that most of the reformers had been arrested, and that the few who had escaped were wanted throughout the country...... The city of Beijing is full of such news, just rumors, but after repeated and widespread dissemination, they are the truth.

But they were also what Cixi wanted to achieve, to imprison the disobedient emperor, arrest all the reformers, and behead them all, an outcome she would love to see, but could not actually do. There is one person who is clearly against her, Prince Gong. Although His Royal Highness still lacked the strength to confront Cixi, his attitude and opinions were still worthy of her attention, and Yi could secretly do some other things.

For example, sending Tan Sitong and others out of Beijing, as well as acting as a liaison between the Minister of the Restoration and the Guangxu Emperor - sending outside news to the palace, and then conveying the emperor's orders to the ministers, is very risky, but also very meaningful, so Tan Sitong will visit Yuan Shikai at this time.

He had some orders and promises from the Guangxu Emperor to convey to the leaders of the New Army. But according to Yi Shui's request, Tan Sitong did not immediately put forward the conditions, because Yi Shui felt that if the threat of force was effective, those promises would be meaningless, and there was no need to tell Yuan Shikai; If the threat of force had no effect, then the Emperor's favorable terms would not have any effect.

His guess was quite right.

Tan Sitong's speech had no effect at all. Although his speech was excellent, although he occupied the moral high ground, although the price offered by Emperor Guangxu was enough to tempt most people, Yuan Shikai just didn't say anything - the influence of a thousand words and high-ranking officials was far less than the seven thousand American soldiers in Yi Shui and the coalition fleet on the sea, he was just worried about the future, worried that the Empress Dowager would eventually turn the tables, otherwise he would not even have to threaten him with Yi Shui, he had already declared his allegiance to the emperor, and went to Dagu to meet the Western friends who came to help the emperor.

But he was just worried, he couldn't see any good signs, no one told him a good answer; He was just worried, in this case, how could the official reward promised by the emperor make him tempted?

Yuan Shikai was not moved at all, on the contrary, he was very afraid. It is an indisputable fact that if there is a point in the future where the Queen Mother regains power and deposes the emperor, every "meritorious man" who is now rewarded by the emperor will die a very miserable death......

"If you don't immediately show your attitude and support His Majesty the Emperor, you will die a tragic death now, and there is no need to worry about the future? With all due respect, haven't you thought about it at all? "The threat of easy water is here again." Or do you think I'm just kidding? ”

However, Yuan Shikai certainly thought about this problem, and he didn't think that Yi Shui was just joking - everyone knew that the famous Lieutenant Colonel Yi Shui had ordered the troops to surround Suixi and attack Guangzhou, and the people who thought he would only joke had all lost their black gauze hats, how could he still make such a mistake.

It's just that the request he put forward is too difficult, and it is impossible for anyone with a slightly long-term vision to give an answer immediately, not to mention that Yuan Shikai's vision is not just "a little longer-term".

He didn't want the British and Americans to pat themselves on the ass and leave, and he would become dead.

Yi Shui sighed secretly, but felt a little happy. If a relatively good politician and bureaucrat in the Qing government had only such a standard, and had gained and lost, and ignored the more definite threats in front of them for the sake of the slightest threat they might encounter in the future, then it would have been very easy to deal with them.

Of course. Yi Shui thought about it. He may just be missing a hint, missing some guidance, lacking ......

There was a sharp knock on the door. Then, a New Army officer stumbled into the room—Yi Shui had seen him before, and seemed to be called Xu Shichang—with a telegram in his hand. "My lord, an emergency!"

Yuan Shikai's eyebrows furrowed, and then he apologized to Yi Shui and Tan Sitong, pulled Xu Shichang to the corner of the room and took the telegram. After a few moments, a smile appeared on his face.

The content of the telegram was short, but it was very important: Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi, and other governors of more than 10 provinces in the southeast, southwest, and southwest jointly requested a peaceful settlement of the incident, opposed the use of force, and said that they would abide by neutrality......

Good news.

He knew what he was supposed to do. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )