The thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, also known as the year division, refers to the last day of the Chinese lunar year, and the evening of this day is Chinese New Year's Eve, and after Chinese New Year's Eve, it is the lunar New Year.

Historically, the Gregorian calendar, that is, before the Western Yuan Era was passed over, the Chinese have always lived the lunar year, since the Han Wudi officially designated the first day of January of the lunar calendar as New Year's Day, the Chinese have been using it since then, and they all uniformly call the lunar year New Year's Day.

That is to say, New Year's Day was originally the New Year of the lunar calendar, and then the Qing Dynasty collapsed, and the Republic of China began, only for the first time that the first day of January in the Western calendar was set as the New Year, and the first day of January in the lunar calendar was set as the Spring Festival.

Of course, that is all later, because the Qing Dynasty has not yet perished at this time, so the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve is still called New Year's Day.

In the past, the day of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve is the most festive day of the year in the Qing Dynasty, in previous years, it is generally from the morning to get up, there will be firecrackers in the city of Beijing, but this year's Chinese New Year's Eve, the festive meaning of Beijing City is much less, although there are firecrackers during the day, but it is not as dense as usual, but it is sparse, adding to the depression.

The reason why this is the case is because in previous years, the main force of firecrackers, those princes and nobles and wealthy tycoons did not set off firecrackers, and only some ordinary people from small households were left, and the effect was naturally much worse.

As for why those rich people don't set off firecrackers, the reason is very simple, because those people are relatively well-informed, although there is no clear news from the palace, but they all know that the situation in the Qing Dynasty is not good now.

"Xu Shichang!" The Empress Dowager Longyu in the Forbidden City was full of grief and indignation at the moment, and her fingers pointing at the minister opposite were trembling a little, not knowing whether she was angry or afraid. "You, you, hello! This is the good minister you recommend! You, you people, said good things about Yuan Shikai at the beginning, saying that as long as he came out. Everything can be done, and we will give him whatever he wants, but what is the result? Now they are forcing us to abdicate! This, this...... How can this be justified, how can this be justified! Anti-thief, anti-thief! Great rebellion! Big...... Xu Shichang, people are recommended by you, you talk about it. What should I do with this Yuan Shikai? Well? ”

Being scolded by the Empress Dowager Longyu for such a clueless question, Xu Shichang sighed, had to bow down, and then knelt on the ground and bowed his head without saying a word.

Seeing him like this, the Empress Dowager Longyu was even more angry: "Xu Shichang, let me ask you, what are you saying!" ”

"Minister...... Speechless. Xu Shichang shook his head.

"You!" Seeing him like this, the Empress Dowager Longyu was speechless.

Oh, yes. He has nothing to say, does the Empress Dowager Longyu have something to say? So far. Even if Xu Shichang is killed, what can he do?

Thinking of the recent situation, the Empress Dowager Longyu was sad again, and regardless of the Minister of Military Aircraft, she directly began to cry.

Indeed, the situation of the Qing Dynasty today. What is already bad cannot be worse!

Since the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd armies of the new army retreated without a fight under the city of Nanjing, and the 4th and 5th armies were completely annihilated under the city of Anqing, the Qing Dynasty was like a girl who had been stripped naked, and had thrown away the last fig leaf, allowing everyone to see the weakness of the Qing court. Since then, the independent trend of the governors of the Qing Dynasty has risen and fallen, and it can no longer be stopped.

Originally, the Qing court also made a quick decision, and soon appointed Yuan Shikai as the governor of Liangjiang, and asked him to hurry to Huai'an, thinking that he would pack up the new army and then regain Nanjing.

In the Qing court, as long as Nanjing was in Nanjing, and Li Zhigao, the leader of the rebellious party, was exterminated, other rebellions could naturally be slowly plotted, suppressed or appeased, and there was no need to worry.

The Qing court thought well at that time, or rather, the optimistic spirit was still good, but unfortunately the times had changed, and they did not understand the strength of Li Zhigao, nor the mind of Yuan Shikai, let alone what the current trend is.

Those high-ranking officials and nobles in the Qing government still don't understand that when people from top to bottom of a country don't like the government in power now, and they all put all kinds of grievances on the government, and they all hope that this regime will end soon, then this government will not be far from extinction.

In other words, when a regime deviates from Germany, even if it has a strong armed force, it cannot guarantee the stability of the regime, not to mention that the armed forces of the Qing court at this time are not strong at all.

When Yuan Shikai arrived in Huai'an, he quickly regained control of the only combat effectiveness of the Qing court, but after that, he still sat in Huai'an, every day is non-stop training, there is no intention to move south, once the Qing court ordered to urge the troops, he began to cry poor, saying that the soldiers have no money, lack of ammunition and the like, in short, it means to reach out and ask for money!

Because the situation is getting worse and worse, the Qing court quickly scraped together a sum of money to Yuan Shikai, thinking that now he should always enter the army, who knows that after Yuan Shikai got the money, he still did not move, only said that he was contacting the purchase of arms and materials, saying that this money was not enough, and continued to ask the Qing court for money.

At this moment, the Qing court became more and more angry, and continued to urge the troops, but unfortunately Yuan Shikai was motionless, continued to train troops in Huai'an and buy arms from foreigners, and sat back and watched the flames of revolution burn more and more vigorously throughout the country.

In the days when Yuan Shikai was firmly seated in Huai'an, there was no more erosion in various places, and even the three northeastern provinces had already declared an uprising, and the only area that the Qing court could actually control was the Beijing-Tianjin-Tang region!

At this point, the situation was unstoppable, worse than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, and the Qing Dynasty reached the rhythm of its imminent demise.

So, the Qing court finally came to its senses and knew that the only life-saving straw now was Yuan Shikai and his elite soldiers, and according to the intelligence, Yuan Shikai did use the money given by the Qing court in Huai'an, constantly recruiting troops and buying weapons, and finally used it for "state affairs", so he had to continue to find ways to make money.

The Qing court had no money at this time, so it had to continue to use the railway as collateral to borrow money from the banks of the four countries, but unfortunately, this time I don't know why, the banks of the four countries, which were originally very interested in their own railways, refused to borrow money!

After Sheng Xuanhuai's inquiry, they learned an astonishing fact, that is, the reason why the Four Nations Bank Group gave up the railway mortgage and no longer lent to the Qing Dynasty was because they were not optimistic about the Qing court, because they felt that it would be difficult for the Qing court to defeat Li Zhigao's chaotic party in the short term!

Obviously, the reason why the bank group of the four countries did not lend money to the Qing court. Not because of Sun Wen's passionate lobbying, which was already in Europe, but because of the previous series of military defeats of the Qing court, coupled with Li Zhigao's public relations, had made the banking group of the four countries begin to hesitate.

The four banks only wanted profits, they didn't want to be tied to the Qing court, and they used to use the railroad as collateral to give loans. It is to see that the Qing court is still a unified regime, but now that the Qing court is on fire everywhere, it will not work, and no one will dare to lend money to the Qing court until the situation is clear.

I can't borrow money from foreigners here, and Yuan Shikai is eager to urge money, and the Qing court really has no choice but to find a way by myself, and the business fee is to increase taxes. and crying poverty with the princes and nobles, asking them to donate some of their own, but unfortunately at this time, no one wanted to worry about the country, and they were crying poor, so the Qing court made up again and again, only two million taels of silver, and hurriedly sent it to Yuan Shikai.

Who knows, after that Yuan Shikai got this money. is still crying poor, and refuses to enter the army!

Is it tolerable or unbearable! Now. The Empress Dowager Longyu was annoyed no matter how good her temper was, so she had to order Yuan Shikai to be dismissed from all his duties, but fortunately, Xu Shichang and others understood the matter and hurriedly persuaded her, because at this time, everyone knew that her mother's Beiyang New Army only listened to Yuan Shikai. really forced Yuan Shikai to be anxious, if he also reversed, then everyone would really be completely finished!

In other words, the Qing court is now powerless and can only plead. I hope that Yuan Shikai will have a conscience, and I hope that Yuan Shikai is loyal to the country, so all kinds of rewards are not given the same as money, not only gave Baturu the title and yellow coat, but also gave the first-class loyalty and righteousness of the double eyes and feathers, which can be said to be the highest honor of the foreign minister, higher than the title of Zeng Guofan, and the foreign minister can be compared with the title, that is, a He Shen.

After giving so many honors, Yuan Shikai seemed to be a little embarrassed, and finally moved his troops, but as soon as the soldiers and horses arrived in Tianchang County, they continued to hold their troops and refused to continue to go south.

Just kidding, although Tianchang County is very close to Nanjing, it still does not belong to the realm of Nanjing, at most it is a boundary, Yuan Shikai's gesture makes it clear that he just wants to be a show, and he doesn't want to really fight.

If you really want to fight, even if it is a confrontation, you must at least advance to Lu'an, and you will not go in Tianchang County, such a long distance, with the mobility of the army in this era, it is basically outside the scope of operations.

At this point, discerning people can see that Yuan Shikai doesn't want to go against the revolutionary party in the south at all, or Li Zhigao, he just waits for the price and sells, because Yuan Shikai knows very well that the Qing court is inseparable from Yuan Shikai and his Beiyang Army, and Yuan Shikai is not ready yet, and he still needs the Qing court to raise funds for him, so everyone is safe for the time being.

In the original history, after the Xinhai Revolution, Yuan Shikai was actually the strong party, he could have easily swept away the Wuchang rebel army, it was he who ordered the suspension of the offensive, and played confrontation with the rebel army, so that the revolutionary party was let go of a way out, and relied on this kind of contact with the revolutionary party army without winning or losing, and kept asking for money from the Qing court, and finally raised his Beiyang army bigger and bigger, creating the later Beiyang Army.

However, in this time and space, things have turned upside down, because Li Zhigao's army is far stronger than the new army, and the new army has no way to take Li Zhigao's troops. In order to preserve his strength, Yuan Shikai had to play this trick of not fighting fire, only confronting, secretly negotiating with Li Zhigao, and asking for money from the Qing court in a high-profile manner.

This is not because Yuan Shikai has changed his character, but because Yuan Shikai is a soldier after all, and he understands the balance of forces best, although he has not personally led troops to really fight with Li Zhigao's troops so far, but this does not prevent him from judging each other's military strength.

At this time, there were two main parts of the new army of the Qing court, one was the Beiyang New Army, originally known as the Dingwu Army, almost all of which were taught by Yuan Shikai, and they were the strongest, mainly stationed in the north; The other part is the Hubei New Army organized by Zhang Zhidong, such as Wuchang, Nanjing and other New Army units, almost all of which are Hubei New Army.

Although the Hubei New Army is slightly weaker than the Beiyang New Army, it is not much weaker, at least Yuan Shikai thinks that he can't just rely on a lone army to sweep the ninth town of the army in such a short period of time, and then annihilate the twenty-first town, and then easily destroy the fourth and fifth armies, without much loss of his own.

It can be said that Li Zhigao's troops are equivalent to sweeping away the main force of the Hubei New Army, and Yuan Shikai escaped from those soldiers and his own spies from the front line. In particular, his special envoy, Yang Du, who was a guest at Li Zhigao's hometown Taiping Mansion, learned from his report that Li Zhigao's troops had a large number of "machine guns" and "heavy artillery," as well as many "cars," and that there was no shortage of ammunition and that the morale of the soldiers was high. It can be said that the firepower and mobility are quite strong.

Yuan Shikai knew very well that it would be impossible to deal with such a modern army without relying on the tactics of crowds, and with the number of troops and equipment he currently mastered, let alone eating Li Zhigao's troops, it would be very difficult to even defend and confront, so he made peace with Li Zhigao in such a low voice.

If it was for the group of poor people in the Alliance, he wouldn't be so easy to talk to, and he would have beaten him without saying a word.

As for the Qing court. Yuan Shikai has long been out of his eyes, especially in this situation where the whole world is opposed, and anyone with a discerning eye knows that the Qing court's life is not long, so Yuan Shikai has no need to talk to the Qing court about shame.

In the end, seeing that the Qing court could no longer squeeze much oil, and the Guangfu Party in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui and the revolutionary parties of the Southern Alliance all made it clear that it was okay to divide the river and rule for the time being, but the Qing court should first formally abdicate within half a month. Then send people to Nanjing to discuss the plan for the establishment of the country, otherwise they will send troops to attack.

Forced to desperation. The main reason is that Yuan Shikai felt that he was not ready, although it was not Li Zhigao who said that the Qing court would send troops to attack without abdicating, but the people of the Alliance, and it was not sure whether Li Zhigao's troops would participate in the Northern Expedition at that time, but even if Li Zhigao did not participate, it was just a headache for him that the group of revolutionary party troops from the League would come over.

After all, the people of the League are a bunch of crazy people. If you really lose with the army of the Alliance, you can only cheapen Li Zhigao in the end.

Therefore, in order to preserve their strength, they did not confront the Southern Revolutionary Party too early and lose their troops prematurely. After losing the foundation of seizing the world, Yuan Shikai tore his face and began to send people back to Beijing to privately force the Qing court to abdicate.

At this moment, the demise of the Qing court officially entered the countdown.

Seeing that the Empress Dowager Longyu kept crying, the Prime Minister of the Cabinet couldn't see it, so he had to persuade: "The Queen Mother, the matter has come to this, and we have no other way." In my opinion, it is better to rely on Yuan Shikai first, at least we can save something, and then we will wait for the situation to change, there is no chance to make a comeback, but if we refuse now, annoying Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang Army will immediately rebel, and when the time comes, we will be all over. ”

"You, you ......" Seeing that Yixuan actually said this, the Empress Dowager Longyu trembled again, "What are you talking about?" I have been in the Qing Dynasty for hundreds of years, how can I be, how can I ......"

"Queen Mother!" Yixuan took a step forward again, and said with tears in his eyes, "Don't you know that my Qing Dynasty is not easy to come by, but now the situation is stronger than people, and we have no choice." As the saying goes, stay in the green mountains, and don't worry about no firewood. Throughout foreign history, Western powers such as Britain and France have also experienced the fall of dynasties, and as long as we are still there, we will have the opportunity to start over. ”

"Ever again?" Empress Dowager Longyu's face was full of misery, "You are my three-year-old child, once we really abdicate, can we do it again?" What do you rely on to start over? ”

"Depends on the current situation!" Yi Xuan said firmly, "Queen Mother, that Yuan Shikai's wolf ambition is true, but Li Zhigao is also a high-minded and arrogant person, plus Sun Wen and other Southern Revolutionary Party, hum, they have a lot of discord with each other, and sooner or later they will fight again." At that time, it will be a chaotic era, and as long as we sit and watch them fight to the death, while recuperating, there will be no chance to re-enter the customs in the future. To tell you the truth, the Japanese have already told us that even if we abdicate, they will help us retrain a strong army in the northeast, a strong army composed of pure Manchus and Mongols. When the time comes, it is not certain who the world will belong to. So, all we need is patience! ”

"Patience?" Empress Dowager Longyu sneered, "In the past, we owned the whole world, and we couldn't make an army, could we have abdicated and lost the whole world, but we could have a strong army?" Are you fools? ”

"This is to be born in sorrow and die in comfort!" Yixuan said solemnly, "In the past, we were dragged down by that group of Eight Banners, these people are used to being comfortable, and naturally they have lost the majesty of our ancestors. Now it is better to lose it today, let them see the facts clearly, but it can arouse the pride and ambition in their hearts. Queen Mother, as long as I am full of people and a little luck, I will be able to fight back sooner or later! ”

"At the end of the day, we still have to abdicate!" Empress Dowager Longyu said with a blushing face.

"If we don't abdicate, do we have any other way?" Yixuan also looked miserable, "Queen Mother, we retreat by ourselves, we can still leave something, if you wait for others to force you to retreat, then there will be nothing, Queen Mother, you have to think twice!" ”

"Yes, Queen Mother." Xu Shichang, who had not spoken, also sighed, "Queen Mother, there is something I didn't tell you, in fact, now Feng Guozhang's vanguard has arrived in Dezhou, and it is only a day or two away from Cangzhou. ”

"What? He, bold! Empress Dowager Longyu patted the arm of the chair, "This is a rebellion!" ”

"They were meant to rebel." Xu Shichang smiled bitterly, "Queen Mother, the situation is already clear, we have no army to stop Feng Guozhang." The reason why they stopped in Texas was to protect Gyeonggi on the surface, but in fact, it was to make us abdicate ourselves, and they had a bad reputation for forcing us to abdicate. But if we don't know how to lift, Feng Guozhang's troops will lead the troops to force the palace with open fire. In other words, if we abdicate ourselves, we will have a preferential treatment for the Qing family, not only will we have a life, but we can also keep our money, and even this Forbidden City is still considered the property of the royal family, and everyone will look better on the face, but if we don't go for a long time, then Feng Guozhang's troops will continue to advance, not to mention the property, I am afraid that it will be difficult to keep even the life! ”

"Yes, Queen Mother." Yixuan followed, "If it has long fallen apart today, we are guarding a court empty, and it is useless, but it has become a thorn in the side of all parties." It's better to abdicate completely, give up the seat of Dabao, and let those thieves fight to the death, so that we can have a chance to make a comeback! Queen Mother, this is not only for my Qing Dynasty, but also for my Manchurian, you must make a decision as soon as possible! ”

"Oh, that's it." Seeing them singing and harmonizing, and then seeing that the others were also silent, the Empress Dowager Longyu suddenly felt tired, "You, you...... Good, good, good one...... Forget it, what ancestral inheritance, what thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, as long as it can make our mother and mother live a comfortable life, don't be so worried all day long, I, this, this son ......"

Gritting her teeth, the Empress Dowager Longyu closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, only then did she reopen her eyes and yelled: "Retreat, abdicate!" I'm clear...... Dead! ”

"Queen Mother Shengming!"

"Woooooooooo......oo It's only temporary, temporary! I didn't die in the Qing Dynasty, I didn't die in the Qing Dynasty! I will never die! ”

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Volume 1 Final (To be continued......