In the wilderness, a railway crosses it, from the north to the south. On both sides of the railway is the anointed land, on which the wheat waves are rolling, and the heat is shallow and golden.

When the harvest season is approaching, some farmers can be seen in the fields, and occasionally a donkey cart will drive on the dirt road at the edge of the field, and the vendors driving the donkey cart will traffic all kinds of groceries from distant Tianjin to the countryside, because of the presence of these people, the American foreign oil, the flower cloth of the rìben, the British agricultural tools, and the German dyes can appear in the countryside of the Zhili Plain.

The idyllic life has long been gone, in the face of modern industrial technology, the traditional peasant life has long become unrecognizable, people are still those people, but the means of begging for life have completely changed, with the construction and completion of this Jingfeng railway. More and more peasants in North China left their homes and traveled to the strange and familiar three eastern provinces through this railway in the wilderness. "The originally peaceful countryside is becoming more and more noisy.

With a few long whistles, the peace of the field was shattered again, and the farmers in the fields did not even lift their heads, and they could tell that the train was a passenger car, not a wagon with oil and water, just by the sound of the wheels crashing against the rails.

The British-built steam locomotive, belching black smoke and dragging dozens of wagons, roared menacingly in the undulating waves of wheat, soon leaving the farmers who disdained it far behind.

This is a passenger train from Mukden to Běijīng, and due to the large number of Chinese in Kanto, this railway operation line has a great feature, that is, the northbound trains are always overcrowded. Southbound trains are always sparsely traveled. And most of the travelers who go south are dressed in gorgeous clothes. This is also understandable, after all, it is impossible for people who "go to the eastern part of the country" to return to their hometowns often, and for most of them, if they cannot make a fortune in the three eastern provinces and return to their hometowns, then it is better not to return.

This train also has few passengers, only the first few first-class carriages are full, and they are not ordinary people, not even Chinese.

The passengers in these first-class carriages were all rì himself, led by the speaker of the Privy Council of the Rì Empire, Ito Hirobumi, and most of the others were his attachés and bodyguards, among which there were also a few rìben and Korean geijì, which were specially prepared for His Excellency Ito Hirobumi to relieve the loneliness of his journey.

However, Ito Hirobumi did not pay attention to those few artists, he was accompanied by a few cronies, standing on the boarding platform behind the carriage, holding on to the railing, facing the wind and looking out into the golden field.

"China's land is really vast!" Ito's heartfelt emotion resonated with the attachés around him.

"Yes, from Mukden to here, in addition to the mountains are plains, the timber on the mountains, the soybeans on the plains, these are all precious resources

"Guarding such a vast territory but not being able to defend it well, the people of China are really pitiful, rather than letting the Russians and the British take it, it is better to let our empire use these resources."

"The lifeblood of the empire is here, on the vast continent of China! Korea was already in the pocket of the empire, and now it was the turn of China, and after annexing Korea, it would annex China. The Empire would be able to defy the European powers. ”

"Your Excellency Ito, please lead us to work together for the benefit of the Great Rìmoto Empire!"

Listening to the confessions of the attachés, Ito Hirobumi was a little bitter in his heart.

A few days ago, Ito Hirobumi resigned himself as "Commander of the DPRK" and became chairman of the Privy Council. Although it seems that his term of office has arrived. In reality, however, this was the result of a fierce political contest, in which Ito, as a representative of the "slow progress" faction in its policy toward North Korea, was pushed aside by the "radical faction." His slow-moving policy has also been harshly criticized by the other side.

Unlike Ito, the radicals toward North Korea, represented by Aritomo Yama and Masashi Terauchi, insisted that now was the best time to annex Korea. Turning their noses up at Ito's idea of slowing down, they joined forces to oust Ito from the position of the Korean superintendent and prepared to implement the so-called "rì-Korean merger" by means of drawing wages from the bottom of the kettle.

In fact, as a colony of Rìben, Korea as a sovereign state ceased to exist as early as the Linnian, a "Rì Han Consultative Treaty" de jure turned Korea into a protectorate of the Rì Ben Empire, although the King of Korea still continues to live in the royal palace with the title of "Emperor of the Korean Empire", but the international community has regarded it as a colony of Rì Ben, as direct evidence "The Hague International Peace Conference in 07 refused to allow the representative of the King of Korea to attend the meeting, which can be seen as a sign of ** piece.

Spurred on by this incident, some high-ranking officials insisted that the time had come for the formal annexation of Korea and strongly advocated that the matter of the merger of Rì and Han should be determined immediately in the form of law, while Ito Hirobun himself opposed this idea, arguing that the time was not yet ripe and that he was still waiting, although he had already made all preparations for the "merger of Rì and Han".

Ito Hirobumi was a slow progressive, but not an oppositionist, and he also believed that the annexation of Korea was a necessary step towards the expansion of the East Asian continent, but there was always a gap in reality. Because no one knows what kind of position the European powers will take, and as for the aggressive United States, it is even more reassuring.

However, the radicals in the country could not wait, and they insisted that Ito Hirobumi, who was in charge of Korean affairs, was in the way of the Great Rì Empire, so they brought down Ito Hirobumi and kicked away the stumbling block, and as an auxiliary means, they also formulated the "Guidelines for Korean Policy" and "Outline for Korean Governance" through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A schedule was set for the steps to annex Korea.

All that's left is to make an excuse, and as for what kind of excuse, it doesn't matter, what matters. This will be a leap forward in the country's national strength, and if the European and American powers do not strongly oppose the merger of rì and Korea, then it will undoubtedly be a recognition of the practical work of the country.

But Ito himself doesn't see it that way. He still felt a little risky, after all, Russia was still watching, and although he had concluded an entente with Russia to legally settle the Korean dispute, international politics was always volatile, and the revolution in southern China that broke out at the end of last year was always changing. This makes the already dizzying situation in the Far East even more confusing.

Therefore, Ito Hirobumi decided, in his capacity as President of the Privy Council, to hold an official meeting with high-ranking officials of Tsarist Russia to discuss the current situation in the Far East, if possible. The meeting was used to settle the Korean and Manchurian issues once and for all, and to form a treaty with the conclusions of the conferences. If all goes well, this will be the second Russian Entente, through which the Entente and Russia will be transformed from quasi-allies into full allies.

However, it was necessary to negotiate with the Russian side on which of His Majesty's favorite ministers of the Tsar should be met, and Rì Benzhèngfǔ decided to take a two-pronged approach, while negotiating with the Russian Minister in Rì, and on the other hand, sending Ito Hirobumi to Běijīng to contact the Tsarist Russian Minister to China, Kosovetz, to agree on the place of the meeting between the two sides.

In fact, this was only one of the purposes of Ito Hirobumi's visit, and his other small purpose was to discuss with the Russian and French ministers about international loans to China, which could not be done by Britain and Rì alone. Russia and France must be brought in, and if the four countries unite to form an international consortium, then the "friendship" of the Entente bloc will be further strengthened, and it will be conducive to "decisive action" in Korea and Manchuria. ”

So after Ito Hirobumi resigned from his post as the commander of North Korea, he did not return to the throne at all, but directly got on the ship by Ren and first rushed to the leased land of the Liaodong Peninsula in China, where he met with the governor of the Kwantung Prefecture, Yoshimasa Oshima, and then took the train north by Lushun to Mukden to visit Xu Shichang, the governor of the three eastern provinces of the Republic of China, and then went to Harbin to pay a "goodwill visit" to the Russian bridge people settlement there. "After leaving Harbin. He got on the train again and headed south to Běijīng.

Along the way, Hirobumi Ito seemed to be traveling within the country, and he didn't even need a visa.

Just as Ito Hirobumi was staring at the field as far as the eye could see, an attaché stepped out of the carriage.

"Your Excellency, it's only more than twenty minutes away from the Běijīng station, it's time for you to tidy up your meters

Ito Hirobumi came back to his senses, silently walked back to the carriage, took off the loose kimono, and put on the stuffy tuxedo by the artist.

The attaché presented the documents that had been put together, and Ito read them one by one. remained silent, and only expressed his opinion when he flipped through a telegram of Ze.

"This Zhao Bei is very difficult to deal with, we must always pay attention to this person. Now he has telegraphed and reiterated his position, asking Yuan Shikai to make an explanation to the south on the joint loan of the four countries, which is another challenge he has launched to Yuan Shikai, and perhaps he has made up his mind to break with Yuan Shikai. ”

After listening to Ito's insights, an attaché said, "Your Excellency Ito, I have the following opinion. If Yuan Shikai really started a war with the south this time, it might be a great opportunity for the empire to take decisive action in the South Manchurian region! Now there is no regular army in Manchuria, only some local troops, and many of them are army evolved from horse thieves, and only a minimum of force is needed to deal with them, and even money can be used to buy them to break their will to resist. I wonder what Your Excellency Ito thinks.

Ito hesitated for a moment and did not answer directly.

"Things are not so simple, international politics is volatile, whether the empire can take decisive action in South Manchuria, the initiative is not in the hands of the empire, but in the hands of the European and American powers, and even Russia has reason to put its beak in the beak. However, I think that in terms of the current situation in China, the empire does not necessarily have to take direct action, and perhaps it can take advantage of the remnants of the Qing state, but they are not enough to succeed and more to lose, and I do not have much confidence in them, but His Excellency Shan County has placed too much expectations on them

"Nabei, should you join forces with Your Excellency Shan County?"

"I don't want to meddle now, last time those people found a scapegoat for Nishizawa Tower, although they barely coped with the past, but now they are still the focus of attention of the parliamentarians, we don't need to get involved, it is I who handle the affairs of North Korea well." And. If this time the four countries jointly borrow money from China. If you suspect that the "Seven or Eight" strong empire has the right to speak in Manchurian affairs, it may not be necessary to use the remnants of the Qing Dynasty. ”

With a few whistles, the train slowed down and slowly entered the Běijīng Daqianmen Railway Station.

Ito ended his political speech in time and sat down in a leather chair with his eyes closed. Thinking about the greetings of the Russian and French envoys to China, and how to draw the two countries into the four-nation joint loan program.

Russia's problem, to put it mildly, is mainly due to financial constraints. I can't come up with enough money for a while. The situation is somewhat similar to that of the current situation, but the British have already indicated that Russia would be willing to participate in the calculation of penalties for joint loans against China. Then Britain will lend to Russia, and Russia will then re-lend to China.

The key is the state eggplant of the French zhèngfǔ

Due to the weak economy in the past few years, the economic situation in France is very bad, the contradictions between trade unions and business owners have deepened, the social situation in France is also a mess, the Clemenceau cabinet is in danger, and it is facing the danger of seeing Taiwan, and it is really difficult to say whether the current French enterprises and consortia are still willing to continue to invest huge amounts of capital in the Far East, after all, France is too far away from China, and its power in China is far inferior to that of Britain.

Before Ito could think of a way to win over France, the train stopped.

Ito stood up, took the top hat handed over by one of the attachés, put it on in front of a mirror in Yiji's hand, hid the pale hair, and followed the attaché out of the carriage.

There were already many people waiting for Ito Hirobumi on the platform, most of them were staff of the Legation in China, and the rest were ceremonial officials sent by the President of the Republic of China.

During his visit to Beijing, Ito decided to pay a visit to President Yuan Da to exchange views on the situation in the south and to do some work in circles for the long-delayed negotiations on the "Xinzhou Incident."

Of course, considering the strong anti-rì atmosphere in China now, Ito Hirobumi's trip to Běijīng was particularly low-key, neither issuing a zhèngfǔ communiqué, nor visiting Yuan Shikai in an official capacity, but purely in a "private capacity", in order to show that the "private xìng quality" of this visit to Beijing He did not even take the special car prepared for him, but took an ordinary passenger train running on the Jingbong line, and came to this ancient capital with a group of "Kanto passengers" who returned to their hometowns in brocade.

Although it was a "private visit" that did not require diplomatic etiquette, Yuan Shikai still attached great importance to this matter and greeted Ito Hirobumi with a welcome ceremony second only to diplomatic etiquette.

Among the people sent by Yuan Shikai, his eldest son Yuan Keding was the most eye-catching. Because everyone present was wearing Western clothes, but he Yuan Gongzi was still wearing a long shirt, and he was still holding a folding fan of Rong Bao Zhai in the capital, looking like he stood out from the crowd.

In order to greet this envoy, Yuan Shikai also sent a military band, after the train entered the station. The marching band began to play, plus those who came to greet Hirobumi Ito. There was a lot of buzz on the platform.

Ito Hirobumi noticed Yuan Keding at first sight, although the two had never met face-to-face before, but the efficiency of the intelligence agency in China was very high, and Yuan Keding's photo Ito Hirobumi had seen.

Therefore, Ito Hirobumi decided to go and say a few words to this Yuan Gongzi first.

But after taking a few steps, the welcoming crowd on the platform suddenly moved, and a person rushed out of the stab, stepped in front of Ito Hirobumi in a few steps, and raised his hand.

"Smack! Syllable!

Seven gunshots rang out in a row, and Ito Hirobumi fell in response.

The Assassin was armed with a Russian Nagan revolver, and he used all seven bullets in the gun in one go.

Five of the bullets hit Ito. Two more bullets hit one of his fellow players.

The incident happened suddenly, and everyone was dumbfounded.

"Catch the assassin!"

Someone shouted, and the stunned Beiyang Army soldiers rushed up and pinned the assassin standing beside Ito Hirobumi to the ground.

"Long live the national dúlì of Korea!" The Assassin shouted in Korean, but few listened

Ito Hirobumi understood, as did several of his attachés, and a few of them themselves walked up and snatched the assassin from the Beiyang Army soldiers, punching and kicking him, but the assassin only cursed.

Hirobumi Ito was carried to the station duty room. Dying waiting for the arrival of the doctor.

The staff of the embassy hurried to the duty room and said to Hirobumi Ito, who was lying on his back, on the table: "Your Excellency! The Assassin was a Korean, a member of the Finger Breaker Society, named Ahn Joong-geun, who traveled to Běijīng on the same train as His Excellency

Hirobumi Ito snorted and tried to raise his hand, but only twitched once, and his head tilted to the side and swallowed.

Die with a grievance or everlasting regret.

Yuan Keding, who was standing at the door of the word on duty, withdrew with a pale face, and said to Cai Tinggan, who was waiting outside the door: "Send someone to report to the president." Hirobumi Ito was assassinated.