In Beijing in March, the trees began to draw teeth. At the table outside, Guangxu was enjoying breakfast.

"Your Majesty, it's time to go to court."

"No, no." Guangxu raised his head and drank the soy milk in the bowl in one go: "Let someone pass a message to the Queen Mother, and say that I am afraid of water." The water in the South China Sea is so deep, what if I fall? After speaking, he looked at the north and frowned, the only bridge leading to the outside of Yingtai, which had been demolished, was being repaired. The sound of ping-pong construction is upsetting.

"The emperor is afraid of water?" Cixi frowned, and her face was dark and terrifying. The little eunuch in the audience immediately knelt down in fright, and repeatedly assured that what he passed on was the original words of Kou's father-in-law, the head of Yingtai, without saying a word.

Cixi waved her hand irritably and let the little eunuch retreat. What is the depth of the South China Sea, what is the fear of water, if you are really afraid, then what happened to the emperor swimming in the South China Sea last summer? Excuses, the emperor is making excuses. The emperor is generous, he sells land and mines, and sells railways, and inexplicably piles up a pile of gold in the warehouse, and then buys warships and equipment...... The emperor signed a lot of agreements and caused a lot of trouble, and now all of them have fallen to the mourning family. The emperor is still too young, and the courtiers used are all young people, can this foreigner's business be so easy to agree? Since the end of the Chinese New Year, these foreign envoys have been constantly interrogating when the imperial court will begin to fulfill the agreement. At first, it was all regular questions, but after a few months, the attitude of these foreign ministers who did not get accurate information changed. The tone between the words is getting tougher and tougher, and there is a big fight that starts if there is a disagreement. Now these foreign ministers are stationed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Waiting for the court's reply.

"Lafayette, it's time to go to the morning court." Li Lianying reminded in a small voice on the side.

"On the morning court? On what early dynasty. Can the early dynasty solve the affairs of foreigners? Cixi's cold tone made Li Lianying shudder.

After all, the anger is said, but the early dynasty still has to go up. Since the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Emperor absorbed the disadvantages of the previous Ming Dynasty for decades, so he set up an ancestral precept that the emperor should not be absent for a day. Although the emperor is not as angry as the early dynasty, someone has to take care of such a big country. When it came to the point of the last dynasty, Cixi still arrived at the Yangxin Palace on time to listen to the government.

After some etiquette, Prince Shiduo came out of the class and said: "Empress Dowager Qi, the ministers of Britain, Germany, the United States, France and Italy will play the imperial court. The decisions signed between the countries and the emperor last year regarding the reform of the Qing Dynasty currency were supposed to be implemented after the end of the New Year, but now they have been delayed for three months. They questioned the imperial court. When will the imperial court be able to carry out the agreement. If the Imperial Court failed to honour the agreements they had signed, they demanded compensation from the Imperial Court. This is an excerpt on the compensation of foreigners. After speaking, Shi Duo presented the excerpts of the foreigners.

Cixi looked at it, and the fold was square. It's thick though. But it is also the style of the standard excerpt of the Qing Dynasty. Cixi took the fold presented by Li Lianying. didn't open it immediately, just nodded with satisfaction: "This foreigner has always not followed the rules of my Qing Dynasty, but this time he can be so regular, it can be seen that I am in a panic, and I still shocked these foreigners." ”

"Congratulations to the Queen Mother, long live the Qing Dynasty, long live, long live." After one knelt down and shouted, all the ministers knelt down and shouted. Li Hongzhang knelt on the ground, shouting long live in his mouth, but kept shaking his head in his heart, the Queen Mother and others thought that the foreigners' folding was a sign of surrender to the Qing Dynasty. But I didn't know that this was the emperor persuading the foreign envoys to follow the local customs, otherwise how could this kind of fold be seen in the court.

Cixi happily opened the fold. She thought that foreigners were so well-behaved, it was because they had a request for the Qing Dynasty. didn't think that Cixi would be furious before she saw half of it: "Foreigners deceive people too much." Cixi slammed the fold on the case, and the fold was scattered on the ground with a bounce.

Cixi's angry scolding suddenly came from behind the curtain, and the figure of the Queen Mother standing up violently was also printed on the curtain. The ministers who didn't know why all knelt on the ground again: "The Queen Mother is angry." But I was wondering what kind of fold this foreigner had done.

"Sedor, you've seen the excerpts. You tell everyone about the foreigner's excerpts, so that everyone can see what kind of agreement the emperor has signed with the foreigner. After Cixi finished speaking, she still slapped the table in anger.

After all the ministers stood up, Shi Duo said slowly: "In addition to recalling the agreement signed with the emperor, the foreigner's excerpt is nothing more than two things. One is to demand that the agreement be executed within a month, and the other is to demand compensation if the court fails to fulfill the agreement. And the focus is on the restructuring of the gold standard. All of you know that the emperor signed a gold exchange agreement with a foreigner at a premium of one or two halves, and the agreement was signed twice for a total of 600 tons. Now it has been exchanged for more than 380 tons, and the exchange has been stopped since the Queen Mother's training, and it is proposed to exchange it back to silver at the original price. How can a foreigner be willing to ......?"

Shi Duo took the time to explain the compensation request written by the foreigner. But before Shiduo finished speaking, all the ministers were furious, accusing the foreigners of insatiable greed and treachery.

A year ago, when Guangxu exchanged gold at a price of 1:16.5, the international gold and silver exchange rate at that time was still 1:15. A year later, although the price of silver has fallen somewhat, it has not changed much. But since the Empress Dowager's training, when she asked to exchange it back for silver at the agreed price, she was naturally refused. However, the international market has changed abruptly, and the international gold-silver ratio has dropped to a point of almost 1:18 in just three months, and there is still a downward trend. At this time, the foreigners agreed to the Qing government's exchange of gold and asked to start the exchange as soon as possible. Now the Qing court is unwilling, in exchange for foreigners making money, treating the Qing court as fools. The result is that if you are not happy, you can't do it, don't you all say that the Qing Dynasty is the kingdom of the Heavenly Empire, how can a big country have no faith at all. Let you exchange it for gold, you will not exchange it for silver, and now you will not be happy to agree to exchange you for silver. In addition, the construction of railways, the development of minerals, the establishment of industrial zones, and so on, these matters related to foreign affairs were things that the ministers of the imperial court had never gone through, and the ministers who always regarded themselves as the superior kingdoms of the Celestial Empire knew about international trade, let alone attracting investment. Therefore, in their eyes, Guangxu has become the image of a loser who sells Yetian and is not distressed. And all the things in front of him have become all kinds of troubles caused by Guangxu, a loser.

In fact, Guangxu does not understand, after all, international trade will be a separate discipline in the future. Where will a person who learns machinery understand the scriptures. Although it is said that only seeing a pig running and eating pork are two different things, it can't stand the information bombardment of later generations, and I have seen a lot of various terms and things. I can still know a thing or two about this. At this time, Guangxu's well-informed advantage was revealed, and although it was not necessarily possible to make a profit in foreign affairs, it could also minimize losses. Moreover, most of the people appointed by Guangxu are young people, and they are inexperienced, and Guangxu mentions them from the side, and the key is that they are willing to work hard to learn. And most importantly, Guangxu is the emperor of a country, and he can set the rules of international trade.

But Cixi did not understand. The ministers below don't understand either, they only know that blindly condemning foreigners is not a useful way at all.

Cixi behind the curtain listened to the noise below. is also upset, and no amount of condemnation can solve the problem. In the affairs of foreigners, the ministers below are all masters who can hide, and someone must take care of these things. So Cixi was silent for a while and then spoke: "Li Hongzhang." You're an old man in the court. It is also a matter of habitual negotiations, what do you think about this matter? ”

Li Hongzhang, who was standing among the ministers, could only stand up when he heard the roll call: "Empress Dowager Qiyu, in the opinion of the old ministers, the foreigners' demand for compensation is nothing more than because the imperial court has not fulfilled the signed agreement for a long time. However, the situation has come to this point, and no amount of condemnation will help. The old minister had the courage to ask the Queen Mother for this errand, and on the grounds that the specific agreement still needed to be perfected, he would negotiate with the foreigners to ease the situation first. Stop the mouths of foreigners. Li Hongzhang was also helpless, and the Queen Mother said that he was an old man and was used to negotiating. This is to put this matter on his shoulders. Since he finally did it, he could still make a name for himself if he took the initiative to take it, which was the only benefit he could think of doing this errand.

"Let's see, this is called Lao Cheng Mouguo." Cixi was very happy: "It's all about the ability of the mouth, only you, Li Hongzhang, are the ones who really do things." Li Qingzhen was a pillar of the Qing Dynasty. Let's retreat. ”

Li Hongzhang sighed and knelt down. He really wanted to go to Yingtai to ask the emperor's opinion, but he understood that the queen mother was taboo about this. So he went straight to the telegraph room, and a telegram was sent to Tang Shaoyi in Jiangning, telling the foreigner in detail. The tone was in a tone of folding to the emperor, and he added a sentence before he finished: Weichen asked for Tang Shaoyi and Lin Qizhao to be transferred back to the capital to jointly deal with the agreements proposed by the foreigners.

Li Hongzhang believed that Tang Shaoyi would definitely forward the telegram to the emperor after receiving it, and although all the telephone and telegraph lines in Yingtai had been dismantled, Li Hongzhang believed that there must be a telegraph line in an unknown place. Otherwise, every time Jiang Ning forwarded the emperor's telegram, there would not be a reply within half a day.

This time was no exception, just half a day later. Just as Li Hongzhang was also talking with the ministers of the five countries, the will forwarded back from Jiang Ning arrived. Concessions can be made, but the exchange of gold and the issuance of banknotes must begin as soon as possible. Guangxu also predicted that the silver exchange rate would continue to fall, and the lowest could reach about 1:22. Now Liangjiang and Northeast China have suffered heavy losses due to exchange rate problems, and even Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Zhili, has sent a telegram asking the imperial court to reform the currency system as soon as possible.

The sound of tick-tock telegrams was transmitted back and forth between the capital and Jiangning, and the ministers of various countries who had resumed negotiations also calmed down to compete with Li Hongzhang word by word. Although it is not very important to the ministers of various countries who is the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, as long as the countries still have interests. Although everyone also respects Li Hongzhang very much, they all mentioned that they hope that Emperor Guangxu can preside over it, because Emperor Guangxu's open policy is obviously much more open than that of the Empress Dowager.

The construction of railways and the procurement of equipment and warships are all easy to handle, and it is good to carry them out according to the original agreement. The only reason why the currency reform could not be discussed for a long time was that the Manchu ministers did not agree. not only did not agree to continue to exchange gold at a premium, but also asked Li Hongzhang to make up for his previous losses.

The bridge in Yingtai was finally repaired, and the emperor began to go to court. Li Hongzhang played the emperor's will in the court, but the emperor turned it over and over again and said: Please ask the Holy Mother and the Queen Mother to make a judgment. Then read your own book on your own.

Cixi was happy behind the curtain on the one hand, and on the other hand, she was also annoyed by the constant provocation of foreigners. But the Northeast and Liangjiang are only the emperor's will and telegrams, but they are the places where Cixi is really dissatisfied. Now it seems that the foreigner's end is flat. Cixi began to let out the wind, wanting to abolish Guangxu and establish Pu Jun as emperor.

Naturally, the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty would not have any opinions, and even the northeast of the two rivers did not send out opposing opinions, which surprised Cixi. When Cixi thought that the matter of abolishing the emperor and re-establishing it could begin, opposition came to her. The ministers of various countries in China suddenly submitted a private letter, in which they made it clear in their personal capacity that they did not want the current Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty to be deposed, and at the same time vaguely stated that although the governments of various countries would not interfere, they did not want this to happen.

Who sits on the throne in my Great Qing Kingdom is a matter for my Great Qing Kingdom, and how can foreigners oppose it. Although Cixi was angry, she also had to consider the attitude of the foreigners, and the matter of abolishing the emperor could only be ignored and wait for the opportunity.

Wake up, wash, go for a morning jog, have breakfast, go to court. This is Guangxu's life every morning. The court turned over and over again: Please the Holy Mother and the Queen Mother. Guangxu of the previous dynasty always had a book in his hand, and in the early years, he was worried about the situation at home and abroad for the first time and last year, so he really didn't calm down and read the book. Now that the Queen Mother is training in government, Guangxu is also happy to take care of trivial matters, and only read quietly in the court, but also recalls the gains and losses of governance in the past few years. At first, Guangxu could still read books, but slowly stopped reading, and watched the court listen to Cixi's handling of trivial matters one by one, and Guangxu also understood. Where a country has big things happening every day, at most, it's actually all these trivial things. Only when the trivial matters are handled well, the big things will have the energy to deal with them. Slowly Guangxu also found that his administration in the early years was indeed too hasty, listening to the ministers attack the new policy with the disadvantages of Guangxu's new policy, and also made Guangxu understand that this court needs not only young people with enthusiasm to open up, but also needs old ministers to stabilize their positions. Guangxu slowly began to reflect on the shortcomings of his own governance, and also wrote down the outline and guidelines for future governance. Slowly, Guangxu no longer brought books, but brought a book. Listening to the recital in the court, Guangxu also wrote his judgment of the ministers in his notebook.

I thought that this peaceful life would last until next year, and Guangxu didn't know that a freighter docked in Yokosuka, Japan. Russian Finance Minister Sergei, who has been floating at sea for more than a month? Yulievich? Witt came to Japan, and although they shared the same goal of the three northeastern provinces of the Qing Dynasty, they still walked together. (To be continued......)