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Today's three watches, two watches delivered

After Song Xiaofei led 5,000 new troops to defeat the 900 German army, the capital quickly stabilized, and Song Xiaofei's 50,000 army completely controlled the city of Beijing.

German Field Marshal Wadsey led 3,000 reinforcements to Dagukou, and the British minister to China, Zhu Erdian, mediated on behalf of the British government, and the German navy was inferior to the British army, and the time to China was relatively late, and there was no sphere of influence, so he had to give the British face, so he put forward four major demands for an armistice: first, to establish a memorial arch at the place where the German minister Klinder was killed; second, the release of Roisid and 300 German prisoners; 3. Compensation to Germany for the war reparations of 500,000 taels of silver; Fourth, it was agreed that Germany would build the Jiaoji Railway, that is, the railway that would start from Qingdao in the east and end in Jinan in the west. The Germans thought that the Jiaoji Railway would lead to Jinan, and the whole of Shandong would be the German sphere of influence.

Li Hongzhang also wanted to build a railway with the help of German funds and technology, and in 1892 China, the national strength was not as bad as some historical "bricks" thought, at that time China's annual income was about 90 million taels of silver, only the customs revenue in charge of Hurd was stable at about 22 million taels of silver per year, and the income and expenditure were basically balanced, the Empress Dowager Cixi fled, and the gold and silver treasures left in the palace were worth more than 100 million taels, Li Hongzhang was anxious to stabilize the domestic situation, and did not want to start a war with the Germans at this time, and the compensation of 500,000 taels of silver was not much, After much deliberation, the Germans agreed to these four demands.

At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi died, the Guangxu Emperor disappeared, the Manchu court was defeated, and lost the hearts of the people, combined with Li Hongzhang's previous political qualifications and the voice of the military, political and business circles at that time, the ministers of various countries in China found that looking at the sea, whether Li Hongzhang's title is the Minister of Beiyang, or the Governor of Zhili, the Governor of Liangguang, or the scholar of Wenhuadian University, Li Hongzhang has become the first person to control the current situation in China, and China "must be Li"!

At this time, Li Hongzhang was a famous military general. He was also a politician, a diplomat, and a leader of the Westernization Movement, and most importantly, he was born into a farming family in the Chinese countryside and understood China's national conditions. He also relied on his own struggle and ability to occupy a high position. He is the "idol" of most Han people, has all the conditions of a founding monarch, and is considered by the West to be the most outstanding Chinese of our time. No, some foreign newspapers have been eager to call him "Prime Minister Lee or President Lee".

Li Hongzhang was also very humble, and was considered by his colleagues to have no personal ambitions, and when he exterminated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Twist Army, he, like Zeng Guofan, was sitting on half of the country, but he never thought of establishing himself as a king, and he was decisive, well-controlled, and pragmatic and compromised. Therefore, Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang and the minister of Nanyang, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, Xu Yingqi, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Liu Shutang, the governor of Zhejiang, and Wang Zhichun, the governor of Anhui, and other Han ministers sent telegrams recommending Li Hongzhang as the president to preside over the overall situation of China.

At this time, Li Hongzhang himself was also moved, in his life, he was busy with flat hair in the first half of his life. Twisting thieves, in the second half of his life, he did foreign affairs, and he also knew that China had its appearance, like a dilapidated house. He just acted as a pastemaker, making up for the paste, although he knew that he was framing the paper paste, but he had to do it. When the Empress Dowager Cixi was in power, he had to flatter, left and right from Prince Gong, Prince Alcohol and other princes and nobles, and Weng Tonggong and other powerful ministers fought back and forth, the paster should be tired, so he deliberately cultivated Song Xiaofei, hoping that the next generation can work hard and make a breakthrough, now God has opened his eyes, the Empress Dowager Cixi is finally dead, Emperor Guangxu is also missing, the Manchu Qing Dynasty led to this chaos, lost the hearts of the people, the general trend has gone, although "life is rare for seventy years", but Li Hongzhang's body is still healthy, it is time for him to show his strength and leave a name in history, Therefore, he invited Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang and Nanyang, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, Wang Wenshao, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Xu Yingqi, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Liu Shutang, the governor of Zhejiang, and Wang Zhichun, the governor of Anhui, to go north to Tianjin to discuss the state of the country.

At the Li Shunde Hotel, although everyone agrees that Li Hongzhang will come out as the "president" and preside over the overall situation, they also have different understandings of the future political system of the country. Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi, Song Xiaofei, Rong Hong and others suggested adopting the American republican system, local autonomy, and the establishment of a loose federal state, so that the southern provinces would be relatively independent, and Korea, Vietnam, and the Ryukyus could be justifiably incorporated into China's territory; Sheng Xuanhuai suggested adopting the French republican system, organizing a responsible cabinet, and the central government appropriately centralizing power to take back the railways, telegraphs, education and other powers of the provinces; Yan Fu felt that the republic system did not conform to the cultural characteristics of the people, and the constitutional monarchy was more suitable for the national conditions at that time, but the key was who to appoint as the monarch; Liu Mingchuan slapped the table and proposed to simply suggest that Li Hongzhang establish himself as emperor and open up a new dynasty, and there were not a few Huai army generals who held this idea, and Li Hongzhang's thirty-six-year-old son Li Jingfang and son-in-law Zhang Peilun were particularly active in this.

Li Hongzhang is also in a dilemma, he believes that in the minds of most Chinese, there is no concept of "president", the four virtues of loyalty and filial piety and righteousness and the five virtues of the monarch, father and son, husband and wife, brothers, and friends are the basis for establishing moral government, once there is no monarch, the society will inevitably be in chaos, he also wants to call the emperor to create a new dynasty and open up peace for all generations, but it is not certain whether the governors of the provinces, especially the old ministers such as Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi, and Wang Wenshao, will support him as emperor, once the governors of the provinces become independent, China will fall into civil war, The Taixi countries will take the opportunity to cultivate their own agents and carve up China.

Just when Li Hongzhang and others were undecided, news came from Xi'an that Prince Gong, nicknamed "Devil Six", made a strong comeback! He rushed to Xi'an, and after hearing the news of the death of the Empress Dowager Cixi, after the Guangxu Emperor disappeared again, he established the half-brother of the Guangxu Emperor, Aixin Jueluo. Zaitao was the emperor, Zaitao was only five years old at the time, Prince Gong announced that he was the regent, after Prince Gong Yixun came to power, the first thing he did was to exile King Duan, depose the position of the eldest brother of King Duan's Zaiyizi Pu Jun, beheaded the ministers close to the Boxers, such as Gangyi, courted the foreigners, and promised to carry out constitutional reform, and strive for the recognition of the Taixi countries.

In addition, Zaitao is the seventh son of Prince Yixun, and is the heir of Wang Yixu of Zhongjun, and the royal blood is relatively close, Shaanxi Governor Duanfang, Sichuan Governor Kuijun, Shanxi Governor Yuxian and other banner people supervised, as well as the 60,000 banner troops of the Jiangnan camp, have declared their allegiance to the new emperor, Manchuria, that is, including the three northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, etc., as well as the Mongolian princes and others have also declared allegiance to the Qing court, and China has the tendency to split into two regimes of Manchu and Han.

Prince Gong also sent a telegram to Li Hongzhang, asking Li Hongzhang to recognize Zaitao as the new emperor, welcome the new emperor back to Beijing, and reorganize the dynasty. Will he establish himself as president or emperor, or will he become a new Manchu minister? A difficult choice was placed in front of Li Hongzhang.

Song Xiaofei also began to ponder the sudden change of the situation, he originally thought that if the Empress Dowager Cixi was solved, Li Hongzhang would be able to become the president smoothly, but he didn't expect to kill a Prince Gong who had been sick for ** years halfway, and seeing that Prince Gong was resolute and resolute, unambiguous, or the sword was not old, Song Xiaofei sent a servant to deliver a letter, and asked Xu Shichang, Rong Hong, Tan Sitong, Liang Qichao, Yan Fu, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen, Liu Buyun, Deng Shichang and others to the house in the middle of the night to discuss countermeasures.

As soon as the servant went out on the front foot, Ruan Zhongshu, the housekeeper of the mansion, led a person to visit, who was dressed in green clothes, smiled and stepped forward to salute with fists, this person was Zhang Peilun, he was full of spring breeze at this time, - eight-character beard, fat body, common official appearance, completely similar to the poor sour scholar who had a sloppy beard, dirty face, and dull eyes when he just returned to Tianjin.

It turned out that after Zhang Peilun joined Li Hongzhang's staff, he assisted in Li Hongzhang's documents, mastered confidential documents, and became a confidant. Half a month after entering the scene, Zhang Peilun read his writings in exile under the locust tree in the backyard of the Li family, shook his head, mourned the death of his wife, and burst into tears, completely without thinking that Li Hongzhang's daughter Li Ju stood behind him. As the saying goes, "the article hates life", Zhang Peilun's life was miserable when he was on the border, and his wife also died of illness, so his articles were brilliant and full of affection, and moved everyone's talented girl Li Juju. Li Ju is beautiful and gentle, she is twenty-two years old at this time, which is already an older leftover girl in ancient times, and she has not yet found a husband worthy of herself, so she took the initiative to talk. Zhang Peilun was over forty years old at the time, and the difference between the two was nineteen years old. Li Hongzhang also generously promised his daughter to Zhang Peilun and became a couple. Miss Li not only took out her private money to buy an old house for Zhang Peilun, but also read and recited poems with him, collected rare ancient books, and was content.

Song Xiaofei cupped his fists and saluted back, saying, "Brother Youqiao is here, and he is not welcomed. ”

Zhang Peilun said: "I also have nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace. ”

Song Xiaofei then invited him to the living room to sit down, and Zhang Peilun explained his intention, mainly to persuade Song Xiaofei to support Li Hongzhang's claim to be emperor, he said: "The republican form of government is not suitable for China's national conditions. ”

Song Xiaofei didn't know whether Zhang Peilun was acting on behalf of himself or Li Hongzhang as his lobbyist at this time, and said: "I will definitely stand on the side of my teacher, whether it is a republic or a constitution, or an emperor, as long as he makes the final decision, even if he is broken, he will not give up." I also think that the republican form of government is not suitable for China's current national conditions, but I really can't find a second form of government to meet the current needs. As you know, few governors in the provinces are more genuinely willing to be courtiers to their colleagues. The last thing China can afford now is civil war. ”

Zhang Peilun said: "Then you can't recognize the Manchu Emperor of Xi'an, right?" ”

Song Xiaofei said: "This is natural, if the teacher is a vassal to the Manchu Emperor again at this time, then he will definitely be retaliated by Prince Gong, maybe as soon as they return to Beijing, they will let the teacher return to his hometown!" ”