"Say, what the hell is going on? Who can tell the mourners what this is all about? At the court meeting, Cixi trembled on the stage with her Wenwen and lost her temper. Cixi, who hasn't slept well these days, only went out this morning, and Li Lianying brought such a thing from the market.

"Queen Mother, please calm your anger." Li Hongzhang came out of the class and said: "The old minister thought that it must be a thief's plan to mess with me. The old minister has ordered Ouyang Zhenhua, the secretary of the military department, to personally lead the Central Garrison Brigade to collect these leaflets and trace the source. The Queen Mother, please be steady at this time, otherwise I will be in danger. ”

"Investigate, we must investigate thoroughly, and execute these chaotic parties on the spot." Cixi was furious: "What's going on over there in Ningbo, has Li Ming been beheaded?" ”

"Empress Dowager, Shanghai Government has dispatched an armed police regiment and is heading towards Ningbo Mansion. However, the Third Regiment of the Armed Police was only equipped with light firepower weapons such as hand rifles, while the Praetorian Guard Company was equipped not only with heavy weapons such as machine guns, but also with light artillery such as mortars. The old minister thought that he might not be able to take it for a while. ”

"I'm afraid it's not that I can't take it, but I didn't think about taking it." Shi Duo stood up: "After receiving the Queen Mother's will, it should have been implemented immediately. But as far as this king knows, the Third Regiment of the Armed Police in Shanghai had dragged on for a day before its departure, and stopped for another day when it marched to Hangzhou, and if the Third Regiment of the Armed Police had stayed in Ningbo for three days and had not launched an attack on the rebels, what were they trying to do? ”

"The prince said this, and the official did not dare to agree." Wang Shizhen retorted: "Let the soldiers take rifles to attack the army with heavy machine guns and mortars, how is this different from sending them to death?" Although the 3rd Regiment of the Armed Police did not attack the Praetorian Guard Company. but the rebels have been surrounded. As only the Third Armed Police Regiment with light weapons can do this, this officer believes that the Third Armed Police Regiment has done its duty. ”

"A regiment of more than 3,000 people doesn't even dare to fight a group of more than 200 people, and it is still called conscientious? If you had been under this king, you would have beheaded you to the public. ”

"The armed police regiment, which is a garrison force for local security, is different from the main combat regiment. There are only more than 1,800 people in an armed police regiment, can the prince know? What was the result of the Japanese attack on our camp garrisoned by 3,000 men with heavy weapons with 30,000 elite soldiers equipped with light weapons? If the prince doesn't understand military affairs, it's best to say less, so as not to laugh and be generous when he speaks. ”

"Presumptuous, you dare to speak so to this king. Who do you think you are? Shi Duo angrily pointed at Wang Shizhen and scolded.

Wang Shizhen smiled faintly: "This official is in charge of the mobilization of soldiers and horses in the world, and how to fight this battle is naturally better than the prince, and this official will never let the soldiers sacrifice needlessly." The prince is the secretary of the criminal department. Take charge of the Criminal Department. How to fight this battle, the prince had better be less finger-pointed. ”

"You...... You ......" Shidor shook angrily, but didn't know how to speak. turned around and knelt down towards the Queen Mother, and asked for a copy of Wang Shizhen.

Just when Shiduo was arguing with Wang Shizhen. Cixi was observing Manchenda's expression. Cixi was horrified to find that the other six Hanchen watched as if they were watching Shi Duo and Wang Shizhen arguing like a joke. What disturbed Cixi the most was that even Li Hongzhang, whom she had always trusted, did not say a word. Cixi suddenly calmly said to Shi Duo, who was kneeling on the ground: "Shi Duo, you are indeed inferior to Chief Wang when it comes to fighting, and this war is still arranged by Chief Wang." Mr. Wang. Tell me when you will be able to behead Li Ming for public display. ”

"Returning to the Empress Dowager, Weichen has ordered an independent regiment stationed in Jiangning to set off to Ningbo in full armor, and it will take three days on the road. At the same time, the third regiment of the armed police was ordered to strictly defend and not let the thieves escape. For five days at most, Li Ming will be surrounded by our army. Please rest assured. ”

Cixi nodded approvingly: "With a soldier like Chief Wang, this palace is deeply comforted. After Li Ming's subjugation, the mourning family will definitely reward Wang Qing's family. ”

Wang Shizhen was thanking him when he came out of class, and there was a hurried footstep outside the palace gate: "Report-" The guards rushed into the palace gate and saluted the military salute, and then opened the folder and said hurriedly: "Shoushan, the commander of the Northeast War Army, has openly rebelled, raised the flag of rebellion, and sent a letter to the imperial court. With that, he handed over the telegram.

Cixi was shocked. She knew that she could not make this article public in the court. But before she could speak, Li Hongzhang, who was standing on the side, spoke: "Read." Cixi didn't have time to stop it, and the guard who reported it opened his mouth and read: "My Huaxia has been famous for the beauty of uniforms since ancient times. The countries around China are all proud to wear my Chinese costumes. Since the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry trampled on our Central Plains, a country that was once famous for its beautiful uniforms and badges was governed by the Manchus to the point of rags, which was really unreasonable for the Manchus. My emperor Shengming, in the 12th year of the Li Dynasty, the country that has been bullied by foreigners has become strong and prosperous, and now it is the time for our clan to restore my Han clothes. My ancestor Yuan Shoushan was originally a descendant of Yuan Chonghuan, a famous general of the former Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, and now I am holding my Han flag in the land of Longxing in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Send a message to the world: Welcome my Han Emperor and restore my clothes. The children of the Han family are prosperous and brilliant. ”

After the guard finished reading it, he presented the telegram to Li Lianying's hand and retreated, and Cixi's heart was spread out on the dragon chair like ashes. For more than 200 years in the Qing Dynasty, preventing Han and suppressing Han was the most basic national policy of the Qing Dynasty. During the two hundred years of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Han people's rebellion did not stop. With the weakening of the Manchu bannermen, although they had to use the Han people, they also suppressed the Han people to the death. I don't want this Li Ming to pretend to be Guangxu in the past twelve years, and he has made Hanchen rise enough to control the situation in the world. Li Ming and Yuan Shoushan were enough to shake the rule of the Manchus.

Li Hongzhang did not smile, and said in a straight voice: "Passing on the decree, the governors and county lieutenants in various places are not allowed to leave their posts without permission, so that they can appease the people to monitor the movements of the world, pay attention to the opinions of various places and report them to the imperial court in time." Wang Shizhen, you immediately gather the generals to discuss military affairs. All the ministries are in their place, and everything is business as usual. ”

All the ministers received the order in unison. Cixi also stood up from the dragon chair: "My Qing Dynasty is now in danger, but fortunately I have loyal and righteous people such as Li Xiang and Zhongqing. The mourners also swore to heaven that they would never be negative in this life. ”

"Queen Mother, please rest assured, the old minister will go on an errand." After saying that, Li Hongzhang saluted and left in a hurry, except for Shiduo's criminal department, the officials of other ministries also saluted and retreated. This is the first time since the Qing Dynasty that the ministers left without announcing their withdrawal from the dynasty. After only Cixi and Shiduo were left in the main hall, Cixi cried: "The Qing Dynasty is over—"

Shi Duo arched his hand and said: "The Queen Mother is not discouraged. Wechen has organized the Manchurian army inside and outside the capital and issued some weapons. As long as we are ready, we can catch these ill-intentioned people in one fell swoop. ”

"You don't understand, you don't understand—"

Three days later. An independent group arrived in Ningbo. When they arrived outside Yangjia Village, they stopped and began to build a defensive line, but the direction of the defense was not towards Yangjia Village but towards the outside of Yangjia Village, because the order they got when they set off was to protect the safety of our Han Emperor. The former Third Regiment of the Shanghai Armed Police also received a telegram from the imperial court and began to maintain the order of the surrounding area. For a time, the entire Yangjia Village became a military city.

The villagers of Yangjia Village don't have any special feelings, the last time the Yang family married their daughters, they all came back with soldiers in the past few years. And this time the son-in-law of the Yang family is here again. It must be a general of the imperial court, and it is normal to go out with some guards. It's just that this time there are more guards. The inspection has been stricter, so that there is no other inconvenience, everyone has become accustomed to it.

When it comes to getting used to such all-military management, there is no place like the people in the capital. For hundreds of years, there has been a change of dynasties or a change of kings. Each change entails the martial control of the capital. This time, the control of Beijing seems to be stricter, the guns on the tower of the city gate have been erected, all the soldiers in Beijing have canceled their vacations, and the streets and alleys are full of soldiers with real guns and nuclear bombs day and night......

In the lobby of the military department, Ouyang Zhenhua was gesturing something on the map of the capital.

"In addition to staying behind at the nine gates of the outer city, the surplus troops of the Third Garrison Regiment have been sent to the inner city and the Second Garrison Regiment has set up positions and checkpoints in various important places in the inner city."

"A regiment of guards has been distributed outside the homes of the courtiers in the imperial city and has begun to be on guard."

"The Manchurian battalion in the first regiment of the garrison has been prepared to the periphery of the Manchu ministers and the prince's mansion."

"The Central Praetorian Guard has begun to guard the Forbidden City and the State Council. The upper and lower dynasties of your lordships were also under martial law by the Central Praetorian Guard. ”

"Soldiers have been dispatched to all the Manchurian areas in the entire capital, and telephone lines have been set up at all checkpoints. If there is any abnormality, the military department will receive an alert immediately. ”

Ouyang Zhenhua didn't expect it. The takeover of the Central Garrison Brigade went smoothly. Ouyang Zhenhua didn't even know that they actually had a set of martial law plans for the emergency situation in the capital, and the Central Garrison Brigade had already prepared for martial law in the entire inner city without being notified, and observers had already been dispatched to each martial law point. As long as the order is issued by the higher authorities, the troops can go to various places according to the predetermined plan.

As the units arrived at their intended locations to erect fortifications and set up checkpoints, some information was brought to the military headquarters. The discovery of organized activities by the Manchus, the seizure of illegal firearms, and the clashing between soldiers and the Manchus at some of the security points all indicate that the Manchus have begun to prepare for the Manchu world. Ouyang Zhenhua picked up the phone and immediately reported the situation to the General Staff Headquarters, and at the same time reminded the General Staff Headquarters to pay attention to the movements of the flag battalions outside the city.

There was also a lot of chaos in the staff headquarters. In recent years, although the various departments of the Eight Banners have gradually withered, the defense forces inside and outside the entire capital have actually been taken over by a modern army with Han people as the main body. However, the original Eight Banners were still stationed in their respective camps, and they were also equipped with corresponding weapons at the request of the armed police. These people don't have much fighting power, though. But so many guns are also a force. The main force of the Fengtai battalion could not move, and once these troops began to move, it might give the Manchus the impression that the Han were going to rebel, which might cause the Manchus to revolt. Therefore, the special forces of the Xishan battalion can only be dispatched to monitor these places, and the result of the monitoring is that guns and ammunition flow into these camps. Not only that, but the checkpoints inside and outside the city have found full people with guns, and because of these illegal gun seizures, there have been many shooting clashes. At present, both sides are exercising restraint, but if this continues, a large-scale conflict will inevitably break out and eventually lead to a local war. This is not conducive to maintaining political stability. And what bothered Wang Shizhen the most was the report from the Summer Palace, where the Summer Palace guard Qi Yide reported for several days that the Summer Palace began to be full of people, and some of them were carrying guns.

What should we do in the face of today's situation? This question made Li Hongzhang very troubled. It seems impossible to make a smooth transition from the Manchu Qing Dynasty to the new dynasty, and the pattern of the Manchu-Han conflict has been formed, and how to minimize the impact of this conflict on the Korean situation is a problem that Li Hongzhang really needs to consider. After thinking about it for a few days, Li Hongzhang, in his capacity as premier, secretly ordered the military headquarters and the general staff headquarters to strictly monitor the Manchurians in Beijing, and all units entered a state of war and were ready to attack at any time, and responsible the two departments to be prepared to completely quell the possible rebellion of the Manchus in one day.

Day after day. Government affairs in various localities are also handled as usual, and there seems to be no change. The court seemed to be calm as usual, and the atmosphere inside and outside the capital became more and more tense. It was the tranquility before the Great War. In the capital, the Manchus, led by the Empress Dowager Cixi, were working hard to gather manpower, and the Han people, led by Li Hongzhang, were constantly sabotaging the Manchus' plans. Outside the capital, propaganda organizations headed by the State Affairs Times are engaged in a war of words. Articles appeared in major newspapers to prove Li Ming's Han Chinese, and there were also remarks emphasizing the authenticity of Manchu rule. However, under the deliberate manipulation of some people, the Manchu rhetoric was losing ground one after another.

The county governments in various places strive to stabilize the local situation, and all large and medium-sized cities where there are full of people. Officials were sent to protect the Manchu settlements, or house arrest, depending on who ascended to the throne in the end. They didn't care who ruled the court. They are concerned about whether the transition between the old and the new will have an impact on their official positions. The county governments were watching to see how the situation would change, so that they could swear allegiance to the new emperor in time when the situation became clear.

However, what is very strange is that the Northeast Theater, which has already raised the anti-flag, has not shown any signs of transferring troops to the Guannai, and all units are practicing according to normal. There was also no sign of the imperial court sending troops to the northeast to quell the rebellion. Shanhaiguan, which has been closed in time, is still running normally on trains transporting supplies from the northeast. As if nothing had ever been done, it seemed that the imperial court had forgotten about the rebellion in the Northeast, and the commander of the Northeast Theater, Yuan Shoushan, also seemed to have forgotten his inscription that he would attack Guannai to welcome back the Han Emperor. This situation made the officials everywhere puzzled, the imperial court did not send troops to quell the rebellion, and the rebels did not attack the capital, could it be said that the imperial court and Yuan Shoushan reached a secret agreement? But this is a rebellion, is it possible to reach an agreement?

Of course not, no one could beat Cixi to put down the rebellion faster. This kind of rebellion that openly welcomed the Han Emperor and abolished the Manchu Qing Dynasty could not be suppressed by a large army at the first time. This will cause chaos among people in the world. A Yang Hong's rebellion, the imperial court control of the army, there is no countervail, and now even the foreign army can defeat the strong soldiers, and it is impossible to rely on the fallen children of the Eight Banners to quell the rebellion in any way. But. Cixi also announced that the world would put down the rebellion, and the strict decree had already been issued, but the response was mainly Manchurian, but there was no place for combat troops, and no main army even responded to it. Cixi did not dare to punish the military department and the general staff headquarters at this time, because the situation in the capital had already shown that the Manchus were at a complete disadvantage, and she was afraid that these two departments in charge of the army would attack her. And what made Cixi most sad was. The independent regiment that was ordered to capture Li Ming in Ningbo had actually become Li Ming's guard.

Cixi was helpless about this. But she also found that all the Han troops, including Yuan Shoushan, did not have any unusual behavior. Therefore, she thinks that the Manchu rule has still had great righteousness over the years. Therefore, Cixi retreated to the next best, she hoped to let the new Manchu emperor ascend the throne as soon as possible to confirm the unification, and then regain control of the various Han armies that were about to move in the name of the righteousness of the world. However, since the Mukden massacre, the Manchu nobles have withered, and Cixi has been looking through the ancestral genealogy in the ancestral temple for a few days, and there have been a lot of phone calls. Finally found Aixin Jueluo family of the royal family, Emperor Qianlong's seventeenth son Qingxin Wang Yongxuan and his family of Beizi Zaizhen in Tianjin. Cixi thanked her ancestors for their blessings, and then made a phone call to Zai Zhen, asking him to enter Beijing immediately and ascend the throne as emperor.

Zai Zhen is not a person with great ambitions, through the shadow of his ancestors to his generation of wealthy, and he also used the name of the imperial family to do business in Tianjin is also a rumor, at this time if he agrees to ascend the throne as the emperor, it is bound to conflict with the Manchu Hanchen. Zai Zhen thought that he did not have this ability, so he politely obeyed the queen mother's wishes. Cixi scolded Zai Zhen on the other end of the phone, and cried and begged Zai Zhen to save the crumbling Qing Dynasty.

Just after Cixi put down the phone call to Zai Zhen, the National Security Bureau had already learned the content of the call. Li Hongzhang was anxious for the Hanchen to discuss the matter, but it did not come to fruition, after all, he had not contacted them in Ningbo for half a month. No one can guess what is going on today, and it seems that he is going to send someone to meet him. But the telegram was not returned, and the head of the independent regiment was sent to meet with the head of the regiment in person to confirm the situation in the DPRK, but there was still no response. The head of the independent regiment said that Jinshang is now in the business of selling fish in Yangjia Village.

The delay dragged on until the beginning of August. Zai Zhen finally couldn't withstand the persuasion of the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces, and the business was becoming increasingly difficult, so Zai Zhen still agreed to the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces, but for the sake of safety, it took three days to clean up the house under the pretext of waiting to see the movement of the court.

Li Hongzhang reacted quickly, and just half an hour after Zai Zhen agreed to enter Beijing to claim the emperor's will but could not get the will of today, Yan Fu's special car was already on the way to Tianjin. The new reconnaissance ship destroyer Wanghai, which had reached a speed of 33 knots in the Qing Dynasty, was already parked at Dagukou and was on standby.

At noon on the third day, Zai Zhen, who saw that there was no change in the court situation, finally came out of his house and drove to the Tianjin Fire Station in a carriage under the escort of a small group of guards. At the same time, the Wanghai arrived at the port of Ningbo. Yan Fu, who got off the boat, rushed to Yangjia Village non-stop.

Under the grape trellis in the small courtyard of Yang Qishan's house, the tables and chairs that used to be placed for rest have been removed, and a thick blanket is spread on the leveled land. On the blanket, there are two small desks facing each other, and a mat is laid behind each table.

Li Ming, who was dressed in Han costume, knelt on the mat, and was talking in a low voice to his eldest son, Li Chun, who was standing aside. On the small table in front of Li Ming's desk was an ordinary small stove, and the light blue flames in the stove surrounded the bottom of the teapot, making the water in the pot make a slight sizzling sound. When the water boiled, his wife Li Yang, who was also kneeling on one side, picked up the teapot and began to brew tea.

Yan Fu, who had just walked into the courtyard gate, saw this situation and did not immediately step forward to see him, because this was a very formal pattern in the Han and Tang dynasties, and how could he wear a Manchu Qing Dynasty costume at this time. Yan Fu took off his top and took off his official uniform, broke the braid and tied it in a bun at will, and broke off a thin branch from the branch and inserted it into the bun as a fix. Because I couldn't find a Hanfu for a while, I had to step forward in my underwear. Huddle your arms, fold your palms together, bend down and bow down to 90 degrees after your two thumbs are up: "Long live the emperor and the minister." ”

"Yan Qing is exempt, please take a seat." Li Ming said with a smile.

Yan Fu bowed again, and said in his mouth: "Oh." (To be continued)