When Guan Xuqing woke up, it was already evening, and he sighed when he watched the golden Yangon sprinkle into the Heart Cultivation Palace, the sunset is infinitely better, but it is almost dusk It is most appropriate to use this as a metaphor for the sunset empire that has gone downhill

Suddenly thinking that the German minister was still waiting for him in the Qianqing Palace, he smiled and patted his head, which must have made the Germans anxious

"Wang Shang, go to the Qianqing Palace," Guan Xuqing shouted

"Chirp"

The German ambassador to China is called Edberg, a middle-aged man in his 40s, who, like most Germans, has a trademark beer belly, but there are few hairs left on that huge head

At this time in the Qianqing Palace, he was anxious, and when he saw the eunuch, he asked the emperor when he would come, and stuffed a lot of silver before he heard that the emperor was asleep in the Yangxin Palace, but the emperor asked him to wait here, and he couldn't leave, and he didn't even dare to drink more Chinese kung fu tea that he usually liked to drink, for fear that when he would go to the thatched house, he would miss the meeting with the emperor, and a trace of cold sweat slipped from his bare head, and he paced back and forth in the Qianqing Palace while wiping his sweat

"Ah, Mr. Honorable Ambassador, I just took a nap and made the Ambassador wait for a long time" Guan Xuqing strode into the Qianqing Palace

"Your Majesty, the Great Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, I am honored to meet you," Edbao saluted Guan Xuqing respectfully

Guan Xuqing motioned for him to sit down, sat on the dragon chair in the Qianqing Palace, and said, "I have just returned from your motherland, I don't know if the ambassador is in a hurry to see me has something important?" ”

"Oh, Your Majesty the Emperor, I have received a telegram from the motherland, saying that His Majesty the Emperor may have had some misunderstanding with our Emperor Wilhelm in Germany, and that Emperor Wilhelm attaches great importance to Your Majesty as a friend, so let me come to understand the situation immediately, and apologize to Your Majesty" Edpours stood up and bowed deeply

Guan Xuqing smiled and waved his hand, and said: "The ambassador doesn't have to be polite, I am very pleasant in Germany and there is nothing unpleasant, the hospitality of the emperor of your country makes me feel quite honored, but the domestic affairs are cumbersome, I did not inform the emperor Wilhelm, and I hope that the ambassador will convey my apologies when I return early."

Edbao rolled his eyes and said directly: "Your Majesty, our emperor is disappointed that he could not sign the three-** alliance this time, and is willing to isolate Russia, sign a two-** alliance with the Qing Dynasty and revise the previous two-** cooperation agreement"

"Oh? Since your emperor has such sincerity, I will inform the Qing ambassador to Germany to discuss in detail the agreement of the alliance between the two countries, "Guan Xuqing really did not guess wrong, if the Germans are not fools, they should know that if they offend no one at this time, they can't offend the Qing Dynasty, after all, he still has a fleet in the Far East and more than 20,000 army forces that need the protection of the Qing Dynasty."

"Ah, Great Emperor, I will go and tell the German people this exciting news," said Edbilberg, standing up happily

The signing of the Sino-German alliance made Russia nervous, after all, what does the signing of the military alliance agreement between the two countries of the south and the west represent? Caught between two allies, Alexander III took the initiative to find Wilhelm II and expressed his willingness to sign a military alliance agreement with Germany, but he was still unwilling to sign any agreement with the Qing Dynasty

Although the agreement of the Three Events Alliance was not signed, for Germany it got everything he wanted, including an alliance with Russia, the ability to concentrate on dealing with France, the support of the Qing Dynasty in the Far East, and the stabilization of its rule over the Thai colony

In October of the 16th year of Guangxu, the first batch of Qing officers who went to Germany to study in 1890 returned to the Qing Dynasty with honors, and they won almost all the awards of the German Army Military Academy in these three years

Guan Xuqing personally greeted them at the gate of the Forbidden City, which was quite a high standard at that time, and after three kneeling and nine knocks, everyone followed Guan Xuqing to the Taihe Palace

After everyone stood still, Guan Xuqing sat on the dragon chair and said, "Four years ago, I saw you off here today, four years later, I personally greeted you at the gate of the palace, do you know why?" You are the hope of the Qing Dynasty and the future of the Qing Dynasty since ancient times: thousands of troops are easy to obtain, and one general is hard to find, but today, I have obtained more than a dozen of your fierce generals, why worry about the world? Why is the Qing Dynasty not strong? ”

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live"

"I visited Germany a few days ago, and I saw things that I had never seen in my life, and I heard about things that I had never heard of in my life, and I had a lot of resources and many soldiers, but why have I been bullied by foreigners for decades? Is it because foreigners are making progress, and we are resting on our laurels and claiming to be the first in the world, but what if we really fight? Although the whole trend has been good in the past few years, this is far from enough, and it is still the same sentence, a rich country must first strengthen the army, and now I am a million lions in the Qing Dynasty, but there is no unified command, each fighting for itself, and if there is a war with the foreigners again in the future, it will definitely suffer, so I will reform the existing military system," Guan Xuqing said impassionedly

After finishing speaking, there was a constant buzz in the ears below, Li Hongzhang first stood up and said: "Your Majesty, now that my Qing Dynasty military system is perfect, and I have won consecutive victories against Britain, France, Russia and other powerful countries, the upward momentum is good, it is not easy to change, not to mention changing the military system, if it affects the rights and interests of those generals now, I am afraid that the ministers will make a mess and it will be difficult to clean up when they come."

"The reform of the military system is for the sake of me, how can the Qing Dynasty affect this good upward momentum? Besides, if any general is unwilling to hand over the military power, then sooner or later there will still be chaos, if this is the case, I hope to come sooner," Guan Xuqing said categorically

Li Hongzhang was speechless for a while and retreated

Guan Xu glanced at the people below, his eyes stayed on Feng Xianghua, who had just returned from Germany, and asked: "Xianghua, you have studied in Germany for more than 3 years, who is stronger than my Qing Army?" ”

Feng Xianghua cleared his throat and said: "Back to the emperor, although my Qing Army is brave, compared with the German Army, there is a certain gap between it and the German Army, whether it is the quality of individual soldiers or team cooperation."

Prince Alcohol jumped out first: "You grow the ambition of others and destroy your own prestige, have you been demonized by the German barbarians?" ”

"Evil words confuse the public, bewitch the hearts of the army"

"It must have been the medicine given by the Germans that made the Qing Dynasty fear it"

“……”

For a while, the spraying of Feng Xianghua was endless, and some even almost rushed up to beat him

"Shut up," Guan Xuqing shouted loudly

The bottom really quieted down, lowered his head and secretly rejoiced, thinking that these armies were established by the emperor, and you said that they were not as good as the Germans, and now there is still your good fruit to eat?

"I just said that if you don't advance against the current, you will retreat, and foreigners are reforming, and we are improving? Just made a little achievement and then felt invincible in the world? Don't have to progress? Guan Xuqing stepped down from the dragon chair and continued: "The 1 million regular army of the Qing Army is divided into 40 divisions with divisions as units, which is convenient for the unified dispatch of the other 10 divisions to form a group army, and in the future, our Qing Dynasty will be divided into four group armies: southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest."

There was silence, I don't know how many times Guan Xuqing was arbitrary, if there were strong quarrels and objections before, now everyone is habitually sinking

Because this little emperor has created too much brilliance, it turns out that what he said must be right

Guan Xuqing made a rule, the reorganized number is active, the military salary is also issued according to the rank, the number 1 to 10 divisions are ranked in the first class, they represent the first-class ace main division, the main division adopts the "three three" large establishment, a division has three brigades, a brigade has three regiments, and the number of the whole division exceeds 25,000

And how to evaluate this ace main division? In wartime, through military exploits, in non-war times, in the annual military exercises between divisions, high and low are distinguished