Seeing that the Empress Dowager Longyu still pinned her hopes on the Mongolian princes, the princes and ministers who participated in the court meeting did not think so.

No one wants to give up power, but they can't daydream.

Yixuan said: "Queen Mother, the king has only been gone for a few days, even if he is out of the mouth, he will ride his horse and fly away, but I am afraid that I will not be able to return to the grassland now, even if I go back to the grassland, I will convene a meeting of the princes, and I will have to wait for a long time to collect soldiers and horses, and then wait for the princes to lead the soldiers to come, I am afraid that the daylily will be cold." The current situation is critical, and the imperial court must quickly determine the state system, and if it waits any longer, it is afraid that the rebels from the south will come to the north. Now that the foreigners have spoken, if the court does not make a decision as soon as possible, they will not help. ”

"However, foreigners have never been of the same mind as the court, and you can have more than one heart." Empress Dowager Longyu said.

"Don't worry, Queen Mother. The foreigner's mind can guess one or two. Lu Chuanlin, Minister of Military Aircraft, said.

"The court is afraid of war, and foreigners are also afraid of our Qing Dynasty chaos, if the world is in chaos, not only can not earn silver, but the safety of foreign businessmen in China is not guaranteed. As for the rebels in the south, the Queen Mother doesn't have to worry, if they don't agree to the constitution, the foreigners will never give them a good look, without the support of the foreigners, how many days can they last? That Sun Rebellion and that Tao Rebellion, aren't they all picked up by foreigners? Without the support of foreigners, they would have been destroyed by the imperial court long ago. A few days ago, the ministers went to visit the ministers of various countries, and most of them thought that the people of our country lacked education and did not understand what a 'republic' was, and that it was better to establish a constitutional monarchy than to build a republic in a mess. ”

"What Lu Zhongtang said is extremely true."

"It's still Lu Zhongtang who can see clearly."

Although the people don't understand what a "republic" is, these ministers may not understand, but one thing is very clear, that is, if a constitutional monarchy is not established as soon as possible, not only will the Southern Revolutionary Army take the opportunity to incite the mob, but also those constitutionalists will not agree, and now the imperial court has few allies, and if they lose the support of the constitutionalists, if they go to support Yuan Shikai as the constitutional emperor, the imperial court will regret it.

"Since this is what everyone means, the mourning family will be approved. This constitutional edict was drawn up by the Military Aircraft Department, and the seal was made clear to the world, so that the people would know that the court was not a tendon, and the emperor was not a faint king. ”

The Empress Dowager Longyu sighed, paused, and said: "However, Yuan Shikai also has to send someone to reply to the letter, telling him to hurry up and correct the position of the 'regent', so as not to have a 'mountain and wild cloth clothes on behalf of the Son of Heaven and the people', which is nondescript and makes people look at the gimmick." ”

Yi Liang said: "This is easy to do, the edict will be drafted by the Military Aircraft Department, in addition, when the imperial history impeached Yuan Shikai for 'greedy military salary' and 'arbitrary killing', these two charges have to be given to Yuan Shikai, otherwise the name is not right, and it will be regarded as the imperial history 'framing Zhongliang', one to appease Yuan Shikai, and the other to give the court a step." As for replying to Yuan Shikai, according to the opinion of the servants, it is better to send Ruan Zhongshu and Zhao Bingjun to Tianjin to announce the decree. However, these two people are still in prison now, but they are afraid that they will suffer some hardships, and they have to be comforted. ”

"Why are they in prison too?" The Empress Dowager Longyu glanced at Zaifeng on the side.

Zaifeng didn't dare to speak, and Yixuan hurriedly said: "Didn't King Gong do it?" Since the formation of the 'Zongshe Party', they shouted that they would kill Yuan Shikai's old people, and said that they would kill the Han people in the city, which made people panic, Ruan Zhongshu originally ran to the slave mansion to hide, and later called King Gong to know, led a group of yellow belt banner people to rush into the palace, and beat the people, and then took them to the Shuntianfu prison, the slave wanted to persuade, and almost beaten. Queen Mother, you can't let them continue to mess around like this, and if they make trouble again, I'm afraid they will become elbows and armpits. ”

"Even the prince dared to fight, but he turned against them!" Longyu shot the case and was furious. "Spread the decree, King Gong Puwei was arrogant and rude, and the Zongren Mansion sent someone to reprimand him, and he was fined for half a year!"

Yixuan shook his head secretly, he was only fined for half a year, what kind of punishment is this? King Gong, after all, the queen mother and the regent are used to it, if not, how can they be so bold? Of course, what he said was not entirely untrue, Ruan Zhongshu did take it in front of the gate of King Qing's mansion, but he didn't enter the door of the palace at all, no matter how bold King Gong was, he didn't dare to beat him up, in case he was killed and his prince was blown away, it would be more than worth the loss.

Of course, if Xiao Gong Wang heard these words at the scene now, maybe he might really no longer care about his iron hat.

……

On January 9, 1909, the Qing court issued an edict, once again reiterating the constitutional determination, and at the same time appointed Yuan Shikai as the "Minister Regent with Plenipotentiary", the foreman of the military aircraft, the title of the first marquis, and the replacement of the imperial court to handle all government affairs, not only the responsibility of organizing the parliament and the cabinet, but also the right to appoint and dismiss officials.

As soon as the edict was issued, the constitutionalists cheered, the provincial constitutional branches were listed one after another, the "junxian vanguards" in various places appeared on the stage, and the envoys of Britain, France, the United States and Germany in China immediately submitted a joint note to the Qing court, which greatly appreciated the edict, and Britain and France immediately set up a joint banking group to provide Yuan Shikai with an emergency loan of 500,000 pounds, and at the same time urged the Southern Revolutionary Army to quickly disarm, or accept the reorganization of the Beiyang Army, and immediately stop all military operations against the north, otherwise, the great powers will jointly send troops to intervene and "help" China stabilizes the domestic situation while exhorting other countries not to attempt any single intervention, otherwise it will be seen as a serious violation of the order in the Far East. Japan and Tsarist Russia did not participate in the joint note, but issued separate government communiques expressing concern about the Qing government's constitutional moves, while retaining freedom of movement in their respective spheres of influence in China.

As for the ministers sent by the Qinwang faction, the reactions were mixed, some quieted down, announced their obedience to the edict, and immediately formed a constitutional council, but some people still jumped up and down, calling the edict a "chaotic fate" and refusing to obey the edict, especially the acting governor of Liangjiang Chang Geng and the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou Xiliang, who not only refused to read the edict, but also stepped up their time to fight hard, and their ties with Zhao Erxun, the governor of Sichuan, became increasingly close, in a vain attempt to fight to the death against the "rebellious party and traitors."

As a counterattack, Yuan Shikai immediately ordered a crusade against Liangjiang in the name of "Minister Plenipotentiary Regent", not only from the fifth town of Beiyang in Huangzhou to the ground of Liangjiang, but even Anhui governor Zhu Jiabao and Jiang Guidi, the commander of the Yi army, also led their troops to participate in the crusade, while the Xiong Chengji rebel army, which was originally besieged in Luzhou City, took the opportunity to withdraw and march eastward, trying to go south from the canal to Zhejiang.

At the same time, Nayantu, who had returned to the Mongolian steppe, sent a telegram to the Russian consulate in the name of all the Mongolian princes, claiming that he had summoned 500,000 Mongolian athletes, and that he would be able to go south to King Qin on a certain day, claiming to defeat the Beiyang Army and capture Yuan Shikai alive.

The flames of war are rekindled, and the smoke of wolves is back up. All of a sudden, the sea was boiling, and all kinds of electrifications and declarations were flying all over the sky, which opened the eyes of the Chinese people, and even the old farmers in the countryside were "x electricity x electricity" with their mouths closed.

When everyone calmed down, they found that the Southern revolutionaries were surprisingly quiet, and did not immediately react to the incident, and the League did not speak, and the Liberation Society did not speak...... It was as if they were all frightened by the note from the Great Powers.

After a few days of silence, there was a thunderclap on the ground.

"If the republic does not stand for a day, our army will not stop advancing for a day!"

This telegram was sent by Zhao Bei, commander-in-chief of the Republican Army, on January 12, so it is called "seismic lightning".

The thunder was followed by two more thunders.

The next day, the Hunan Communist Association issued a telegram, announcing the formation of a "revolutionary coalition army", declaring that "our army was born for the republic, and we will not shy away from saying that we will die for the republic!" ”

On the other day, the Qunzhi Society, which had established a base in southern Henan, was led by Yang Wangpeng and issued a statement announcing that the Qunzhi Society was officially reorganized into the "Endeavor Society", vowing to "clear the room and never retreat, and the battle will not stop!" ”

Soon after, the League and the Liberation Association also sent a telegram accusing the Qing court's constitution of being a fake constitution and a banner constitution, and that the revolutionaries would never recognize this kind of "constitution" unless party politics and a responsible cabinet system were implemented, and half of the members of the cabinet must come from the revolutionary forces in the south.

At the same time, Sun Wen, the leader of the League, who was going to Europe by ship to seek diplomatic and financial help, also sent a telegram, calling on the people to fight to the end against the imperial system, and that if the imperial system was not overthrown, it would not stop fighting for a day.

On January 15, when the whole province of Fujian was recovered, and the League was in charge of Fujian, Song Jiaoren rushed to Fuzhou and issued a manifesto, announcing the formation of the "Chinese Revolutionary Army for the Founding of the People's Republic of China", appointing Xu Chongzhi as the commander-in-chief, and swearing to conquer Guangdong in the south. The next day, the whole province of Zhejiang was restored, and Tao Chengzhang, the president of the Liberation Association, officially assumed the post of governor of Zhejiang, and then sent people to Anhui to try to contact Xiong Chengji and take them to Hubei to rest.

On 17 January, the envoys of Britain, France, the United States, and Germany again issued a joint statement reiterating the positions of each country, and at the same time dispatched five additional warships to cruise along the coast of South China to deter the revolutionary forces and intercept the balance of tariffs, thus economically forcing the revolutionaries to submit.

"Is it another Gengzi country change?" How powerful is the seismic lightning? All of them held their breath, unbeknownst to them, the originator of the "seismic shock" was thinking about another issue.

"A constitutional monarchy? The Great Powers supported the Qing Dynasty constitution? …… What international jokes? …… Yuan Shikai's life is really big, he can't be killed like this. Yuan Shikai didn't immediately usurp the Qing Dynasty, but wanted to dress himself up as a loyal minister, this is probably the first mistake he made, perhaps, he is still dreaming of driving tigers and wolves, left and right, but unfortunately, Lao Tzu is crossing, don't eat this set. If Yuan Shikai immediately responded to the republic now, it would be difficult to deal with, and he himself gave up this opportunity to raise his popularity, but he couldn't complain about others. ”

Zhao Bei knocked on the table, put down the Chinese newspaper, thoughtfully picked up the teacup, and blew the tea foam.

"A big stick went down and beat the Manchu court to the dark...... Now, perhaps, we can give them a honey-smeared poison. ”