"Outside the number, the five cities of Hunan are righteous! Hunan Province is recovered! ”

"Extra! Hunan Province was said to be in rebellion. The world was shocked ......"

Early in the morning, the newsboy who sold newspapers in Sijiu City waved the number in his hand and shouted loudly, last night the five cities of Changsha were electrified and the whole country was full of Xinghan, shocking the world, and the same is true of these Sijiu cities, whether it is the one who has nothing to do with the bird cage and drinking tea, or the Lord who worries about the country and the people, this will be like crazy to grab a copper dollar newspaper.

"No need to pinch, no need to count, Guangxu won't be able to pass thirty years!"

Although there are more than one million banner people gathered in these 49 cities, the beggar who wants to eat is still there asking for food with an allegro, "Hunan has turned the sky upside down, all the prisoners are out of prison, red clothes are walking all over the streets, and the long hair is in front of them!" ”

"Hey, boy, what do you say that ......"

As soon as the owner of the birdcage shouted, the beggar who asked for food was not only not afraid, but continued to talk there in an allegro style.

"Uncle Qi, Uncle Qi, Riding Uncle, Angry Uncle, Angry Killing, Killing Flag Man, Xing Han, Dahan Xing ......"

The beggar who was not afraid of anti-music was rapping with allegro, but it was the flag man who was shocked, his face was white and afraid, and he hurriedly turned around and left...... In the Palace of Nourishing the Heart, a group of princes and ministers, no matter how old or young, no matter how high or low their official positions are, they are all standing there stunned, you look at me, I look at you, and they don't say a word. Guangxu, who was sitting next to the Queen Mother, was a little tired, her face was pale, and her eye circles were dark, and the Queen Mother sitting behind the imperial table also looked the same, as if she was a little struggling to open a pair of eyes, and her gaze wandered to scan the minions in the hall.

“…… The barbarians outside the original Sai of the Manchu Qing clan were neither the virtue of the order, nor the merit of China, taking advantage of the declining fortune of the emperor and the Ming Dynasty, violently robbing and pretending to be for a while, and the opportunities were full of changes, and the world was skillful. At that time, Haojie was invincible by force, and he swallowed hatred and held anger to this day, covering the so-called people who are victorious over the sky. Now is also the time when heaven will conquer people. ……”

When reading the Han Hunan Governor's axe "Asking for the Manchu Wen", the eunuch's heart trembled, the sweat drops of bean size slid down his cheeks, and the hands holding the Wen Wen were also trembling there.

"Anyone who has been coerced into Han Hugou but has surrendered will be amnestied and not asked. If they are in captivity, if they are deformed, they are willing to return to agriculture and animal husbandry, and they will also be amnesty. He has coerced the public to call him a go, a little resistant to Yan Xing, and there is no forgiveness for killing; For spies, there is no mercy for killing; Therefore, if you violate military law, you will not be pardoned!"

Not far away, another eunuch walked in with a piece of paper, and the eunuch took the paper and continued to read.

"According to the news of the legations, the traitors in Hunan Province have passed on the legations and consulates, and they have counted the top ten crimes of the Qing Dynasty......"

What the...... The coaxing ministers were stunned by the news, and Cixi, who was pale and spiritless, struggled to open a pair of eyes and stare at the slave who was reciting the ten sins.

"Please ask the Empress Dowager and the Emperor to immediately dispatch troops to attack Hunan and exterminate the ...... of the rebellious party"

"Please decree the Queen Mother and the Emperor ......"

With a bang, everyone knelt down and kept kowtowing, while Guangxu, whose bloodless face was just standing there like a rope puppet.

"The servant asked the Queen Mother to give an order. Order the three provinces of Hubei, Jiangxi, and Suzhou to quickly send effective troops, and the gallop will disrupt the party! ”

"Please transfer the navy to Jiujiang and Wuhu to strengthen their courage."

"Minister, please ......"

For a while, a loyal and brave prince and minister came from talking about it, and they all asked for an order, asking the Queen Mother to give an order to exterminate the rebellious party, and Cixi Cixi nodded.

"Let's do it first!"

After drafting the decree, Cixi raised her eyes and looked at the princes and ministers standing in front of her, but asked again.

"How's the situation in the city today?"

"Back to Lafayette, the chaotic party spread rumors in the capital, and now the people in the capital are panicking, the price of rice is soaring, and people have gone to the bank to run and cash out, so that the market must be bought and sold in cash."

"Oh!"

Cixi was silent for a while before speaking to her ministers.

"Immediately telegraph to Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, and Ruifang, the governor of Liangjiang, to send them to transfer the elite of Huguang and Liangjiang to Hunan to suppress the ...... of the party."

Halfway through her words, Cixi pondered for a while before adding.

"Order Cen Chunxuan, the governor of Liangguang, to tune the elite to the south to suppress the rebellion in Hunan! At the same time, the land route is strictly investigated to prevent the provinces from rebelling, and the party is helping Hunan Province from rebelling! ”

Cen Chunxuan is the hero of Gengzi's escort, it is with this escort that he became the governor of Liangguang from the inspector, listening to the instructions of the queen mother, Qu Hongzhen and Yixuan couldn't help but believe it and sighed in their hearts, "The holy family is here". Since Na Cen Chunxuan was favored by his escort, he went out to Shaanxi, Shanxi, and the two countries, because of the support of Cixi, he was not afraid of the powerful during his official tenure in various places, and impeached and punished a large number of officials who bought officials, especially the two cases of forcing the Netherlands to extradite Pei Jingfu and investigating the Guangzhou Customs Clerkship Office and Zhou Rongyao, the minister in Belgium, were particularly eye-catching.

"Hmmm! They are ordered to exterminate the rebellion in Hunan as soon as possible, and it must not be a matter of delay! ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi glanced at the ministers when she spoke, these people only looked at the face, not at the inside, if the rebellion in Hunan Province could not be pacified quickly, I was afraid that the Qing Dynasty would ...... "The time-consuming and labor-intensive deployment of troops and generals, we did not build a few railways in the Qing Dynasty!" ”

This will make her think about the train that she was upset about but happy to get on after the Xin Chou New Year, as if she felt a little headache, Cixi frowned again, and muttered for a while before looking at it.

"A few days ago, don't you say that there is a Yangtze River company, right? It is said that the run on the Yangtze River is not easy to do even the business of foreigners, they have many ships, this Hunan is connected to the waterway, and it will be faster to rent the ship of the Yangtze River Company to transport troops! ”

Although Cixi is nearly seventy years old, she can stand out in this palace with the harem, although she can do some foolish things, but her mind is meticulous and how ordinary people can compare, but it is just a few breaths of effort, and everything has been arranged.

"Tell them not to worry about spending silver, don't give less to the money of the people who should be given, even if it is a boatman, remember to give the silver, save less money and delay the big thing!"

When the Yangxin Hall made a court meeting, in the embassy area of Dongjiaomin Lane, the ministers of various countries gathered in the conference room of the British Legation, and the seats in the conference room were according to the past practice, the core personnel of the top level of the ministers of various countries sat in the innermost circle, and the outer circle sat to handle the ministers.

British Minister Sadaoyi, who was the head of this year's legation, sat in the first seat, Surprisingly Russian Minister Ressar sat on his side, and American Minister to China sat on his side, followed by French Minister Bouveau, German Minister Mommer, Austria-Hungary Minister Zigan, Italian Minister Salvag, Dutch Minister Krober, and Minister Uchida Yasuya was at the bottom.

However, for Uchida Yasuya, he knew that this seating arrangement just reflected the shrewdness of Sadaoyi, a professional diplomat, so as to take care of Ressar's emotions, and avoid unnecessary disputes at the meeting of the legation, thinking of taking care of Ressar's emotions, Uchida Yasuya couldn't help but feel happy in his heart, which just proves the current advantage of the company, at this time the army has an advantage on the Kwantung Peninsula and is attacking Jinzhou, once Jinzhou falls, then Lushun ...... "I believe that the ministers already know about the large-scale rebellion that occurred in Hunan!" ”

Sa Daoyi first asked, and then took a report from Zhu Erdian, the minister in charge.

"An hour ago, I received a telegram from a British [***] ship on the Yangtze River passing through Yuezhou,"

As he spoke, he picked up the telegram and read it.

"In Yuezhou Mancheng, a very unfortunate thing happened, there are only two ways for the banner people in the city to escape, one is to take advantage of the rebels to climb over the city wall unprepared, the other is to flee into the church to be protected by foreigners, since last night, after the Yuezhou rebels blew open the city gate, the residents in the city saw that there was no enemy at the east gate, that is, they rushed to escape, unexpectedly the rebels set up a machine gun position in the east gate of Yuezhou, and the corpses of the east city gate amounted to as many as 1,000 bodies......

Listening to Zhu Erdian's words, the ministers of various countries couldn't help frowning, in fact, for this kind of result, from the document sent by the temporary political axe in Hunan, you can guess a thing or two.

"This is the news from the American missionaries who came to the rescue......"

"What a mob!"

Bao Wu said lightly, and then added a special sentence.

"Just like the group of thugs that appeared in the south of the Qing Dynasty half a century ago! I think we should ......"

"I don't think so!"

Interrupting Bao Wu's words, Rou Keyi added a point.

"I think Minister Sadao forgot to mention that even in Yuezhou, the rebels were protective of foreign churches and foreigners, and according to what we have received from Priest Marixun, although there are a large number of gang members among the rebels, they maintain relatively strict military discipline, and when he left Yuezhou, he saw the rebels beheaded for strict military discipline!"

"What a bunch of savages!"

The Dutch Minister Krober said that for him, it did not matter what decision the mission made, the important thing was that the interests of the Netherlands were based on the protection of the countries of the mission, so the process was not important, the result was important.

"Now that the Qing Zheng Axe is desperate for our answer, I would like to remind you that our interests have not been harmed now!"

"But that doesn't mean you won't be harmed later, does it?"

The German minister, Murmer, laughed and sang the opposite tune to Sadaoyi.

Yasuya Uchida, who had not said a word, suddenly spoke.

"Gentlemen, I personally think that this may be the prelude to a great uprising!"

"Minister Uchida, please tell me what you think!"

Sa Daoyi stretched out his hand and made an invitation.

"The uprising has happened, but why is it happening? In fact, in the past few years, with the rhetoric of liberation and the spread of nationalism, today's uprising has been expected, and for us, I do not think that we should discuss our position here, but rather discuss the future direction of this uprising, whether it will be successfully suppressed by the Qing state, or whether it will continue to expand, and we also need to consider ...... Well, as Minister Mougins said, it's just that the interests of the present are not harmed, but it does not mean the future! ”

Yasuya Uchida said something that he had already received from home the attitude he should have had towards the uprising. However, given the tacit understanding reached by the countries during the discussion of the Treaty of Xincho three years ago that one country could not act alone, he needed to first find out the attitude of the ministers of each country.

Seeing that his views were supported, Mu Mo smiled at Yasuya Uchida.

"Personally, I believe that temporary protection is not the same as permanent protection, and this may even be the resurgence of the Boxers, you must know that the current situation we have is that this uprising was launched by the Hui Party, and of course a small number of Qing [***] teams were involved in it......"

While Murmer was expressing his views there, Sadaoyi was pondering that Britain was the country with the greatest economic interests in China, and if, as Mulmer and Uchida Yasuya said, the future uprising swept across the Yangtze River, and eventually got out of control as the uprising spread...... The Yangtze River is a British sphere of influence and the center of British economic interests in China.

"I think we should wait!"

Suddenly, a voice sounded behind Sa Daoyi, and the others followed the voice to see that it was Zhu Erdian, the minister of the British Legation, and Zhu Erdian, who stood up, said with a straight expression after seeing that everyone turned their eyes to himself.

"Now this is just a rebellion in Hunan, similar rebellions have occurred from time to time in the past few years, and we currently have very limited information about this rebellion, and it is possible to put us in a disadvantageous position if we express the attitude of the legation or act too early,"

When he was about to sit down, Zhu Erdian deliberately accentuated his voice and said a sentence.

"Disadvantage from the position!"

"Maybe it's a Boxer rebellion, maybe it's a political reform, at least for now we don't know what's going on there!"

The U.S. Minister to China, Rou Keyi, glanced at Zhu Erdian and spoke, and the French Minister Bovor also agreed with his significance, and in the end, after many unreached consensus, the legation meeting decided not to respond for the time being, waiting for the situation to develop further.

Chen Moran, who was far away from the wolfberry island off Shanghai, didn't know what was happening in the conference room of the British Legation in Dongjiaomin Lane, Beijing, and if he knew, he would definitely say thank you to Zhu Erdian, Rou Keyi, and Bao Wu, but Chen Moran didn't know what happened there.

In the headquarters of the Liberation Army on Goji Island, staff officers walked back and forth, more than a dozen radio stations sent and received telegrams from time to time, and the telephone rang continuously, and the telephone was transferred from Shanghai to here.

"Marshal, there are ...... changes in the Qing army in Jiangning, Shanghai, and Zhenjiang"

"Hubei's self-improvement army has also moved"

…… When the news came one by one in the war room, a smile piled up on Chen Moran's face, everything was as planned, and the Qing army was being mobilized.

"Silently, in addition to Fujian and Zhejiang, the elite troops of Liangguang, Huguang, and Liangjiang have all been mobilized by us, and they are expected to ...... in five days."

Before Jiang Fangzhen could finish his words, his words were interrupted by a staff officer's report.

"Dashuai, the Yangtze River Shipping Company has sent a message that the Governor of Liangjiang has issued an official letter to the company, chartering forty-five ships, and preparing three places in Jiangning, Zhenjiang and Shanghai!"

"The one who helps me!"

Chen Moran smiled, turned his head and ordered to the side.

"Immediately ask the Wuchang Office of the Yangtze River Company, and the Governor of Huguang can go to the company as an official!"

Although the Yangzijiang Company has only been established for more than a year, it has become the largest inland river shipping company in the entire Yangtze River basin by virtue of its financial resources; in just 23 months, it has purchased and built 287 ships, more than 42,600 tonnage, and more than 7,000 employees; relying on the slogan of "Chinese do not take foreign ships, and Chinese goods do not take foreign ships," it has competed with the Yangtze River inland shipping companies of Britain, Yue, and the United States, from the mouth of the Yangtze River to the Sichuan River, and to the Huai River, Xiang River, Gan River, and other tributaries of the Yangtze River, covering almost the entire Yangtze River basin.

Originally prepared for Ma'anshan, this company later became the key to the success or failure of the uprising, not just the transportation of troops and supplies.

"Hmm...... Transfer the ship, try to use the cement ship as the mainstay! ”

Chen Moran added another sentence, but this addition surprised Cai Yi.

"Dashuai, are you going to blow up the ship?"

"If necessary, you can do it!"

Chen Moran nodded affirmatively, he had already had this idea in his heart, if necessary, he could directly blow up the troop carrier.

"Marshal, the Qing army rents a ship to transport troops, which is intended to be fast, and with military practice, it will definitely use a sailor to escort it, even if it blows up the troop carrier......"

"Sailor...... Baili, I remember that Cheng Yaozhang seems to be the son of Cheng Wenbing, the commander of the Yangtze River Navy, can you ......?"

"Dashuai, there are only a few ships in the Yangtze River Naval Division, you don't know in Dangtu, the only concern is whether the Qing court will mobilize the Beiyang Naval Division, if the Beiyang, the sea and the sky are sunk, but there are still Haiqi and Hairong ships in the Beiyang, if the fleet arrives on the Yangtze River, I am afraid that there will be changes in the way during the uprising, after all, the benefits of the naval artillery are far from being comparable to the land artillery."

"Rebel against the sailor!"

Cai Yi lightly spit out four words, and then pointed to a few points on the map.

"If it is transferred to the Beiyang Naval Division on the Yangtze River, it must be equipped with the line from Wuhu to Wuchang, and it can be mined on the Yangtze River as planned, and then the Naval Division will be persuaded by competent candidates."

"The Yangtze River is blocked by mines in response to the interference of the great powers, and the Yangtze River system is where the interests of the great powers of various countries lie, will it ......?"

"If the sailors do not rebel, the Yangtze River will be under the control of the Qing court, and when the boundary is met, it will transfer the Beiyang Army to attack by land, and use the sailors to cover the Yangtze River, and the recovery can be described as a failure! What is the use of the non-intervention of the great powers? ”

Listening to their opinions, Chen Moran just frowned and thought about it, he looked at the map for a while and nodded.

"According to Songpo's meaning, as long as the ships of the Beiyang Naval Division reach the Yangtze River, we will lay mines and cut off the river, close the door and beat the dogs! Then I will negotiate with the consuls of various countries! ”

Holding the map table in his hand, Chen Moran's expression became a little complicated, just a few warships will make people look forward to the future, if the powers gather gunboats to intervene...... "Send a telegram to the shipyard and ask them to speed up the repair of the Haitian cruiser, aren't the more than 400 sailors of the Haitian in Shanghai?" Think of a way to turn against them, as long as Haitian is repaired, it is best to put it into use immediately. ”

(To be continued)