“…… In the theater, the melodious melody drifted to the ears of everyone in the audience, and the thousands of people in the theater who had spent several pounds to enjoy the performance of the future Empress of China or the First Lady were listening attentively to the performance of the lady, and when the performance was played, the audience was deeply moved and even shed tears. Undoubtedly, the concert was an unprecedented success, and the applause continued.

Madame played a great game, playing several works by Brahms and Scarradi, many pieces by Chopin, and of course inevitably several piano pieces written for her by her husband, which were already famous in Europe. In the end, the concert continued with the repeated requests of the audience to "do one more song". Mrs. Chan also catered to them very kindly, returned to the piano and played two pieces, and finally ended the concert with applause from the audience.

In my career, I have not watched a concert once, and I have listened to music with great concentration countless times. But when Ji Li on stage? When Mrs. Chen was playing there, I looked at Mrs. Chen, who was concentrating on the piano, and I felt that my eyes were wet, and when her husband was leading a war for the liberation of the nation at home, she was far away in Europe, but she was pregnant and held concerts just to raise money for the purchase of warships.

Madame will have six concerts in London, tickets are now sold out, the proceeds of £45,000 have been deposited into a special bank account, Madame has received an invitation to give a concert in Paris, and the proceeds are used to buy two warships, and for the purchase of two warships for the navy, Madame has sold her ancestral home, private property, dowry, and all the jewellery for her husband after marriage......"

Inside the ruling axe, Chen Moran, who was sitting in a chair, stared at the report on the "Ta Kung Pao" for a long time, almost all newspapers today are reprinting this "Times Post" report, Ji Li scattered all her property and exchanged two warships for the navy, which surprised Chen Moran more than moved.

"It's stupid!"

When shaking his head and sighing lightly, Chen Moran saw his wife's delicate face in front of him, and he felt guilty that she couldn't bear to be born, he had betrayed her that night a few months ago, and even ...... While blaming himself, Ye Zugui, who was wearing a navy uniform, walked into the study, he gave a military salute first, and then took out a few checks from his pocket.

"Tonghou, this is ......"

Looking at the few checks in front of him, Chen Moran looked up at him with some surprise.

"In power, Mrs. is pregnant with Liujia, it is not suitable to work hard, but for the sake of national affairs, going to Europe, dealing with the great powers, has made us ashamed, and Mrs. for the construction of our navy, did not hesitate to scatter all the family wealth, but also as a Liujia body in the countries to play and raise funds, if the navy is ......"

When Ye Zugui spoke, he only felt that his voice was a little astringent, although he did not criticize the identity of his wife like others before, but he was also quite complaining, and now, he ...... Thinking of his wife, the phrase he had read in the newspaper in the morning came to his mind.

"Unlike the Asians, who are obsessed with their ancestral roots, in Europe, whether Bourbon or Habsburg, ascend to the throne of Naples or Spain; The king was completely assimilated with the Spaniards or Neapolitans. Once the Hanoverians had seized the power of the English crown, they ceased to be Germans. For Ji Li, who is married to a Chinese? As for Mrs. Chen, since the day she married him, she has ceased to be the daughter of a nobleman in England, and His Majesty's new canonization of her as Duke of Buckingham cannot change the fact that she is no longer English, and now she has long become a Chinese, and is willing to give everything for this country that has won national liberation and freedom, not because of her husband, but simply because she is Chinese. ”

"This is 250,000 yuan raised by the Admiralty officials to help my wife buy a ship and return home!"

Looking at the check on the table, Chen Moran nodded, and then his voice became a little muffled.

"Thank you!"

When a thank you word was spoken, Chen Moran hoped that it was all worth it, he understood why Ji Li did it, she hoped to be able to use this way to tell her compatriots that she was also a Chinese, and although her appearance was different, her heart already belonged to China.

"Please tell Madame that our naval officers will never live up to the trust of Madame, and he said that if a foreign enemy invades, our navy will definitely enter the war with all its might, and raise the wind of the army, or victory, or defeat!"

When Ye Zugui said this, domestic newspapers also worked overtime, calling on the public to donate money to buy ships.

"The danger of the country is from the sea, and it is said that Russia is ashamed of war, and the navy cannot resist the enemy without ships, and it will not be a colonial slave if it buys warships. There are thousands of riches, and the enemy comes to turn into floating clouds. All the people donate money and goods to protect our land. Not afraid of hunger and cold, snow shame is the most dominant. All the people wept with blood and tears, and guarded the land with red commandments. Bloodshed is a wake-up call, and compatriots are insulted. The people donate a lot of money, and the enthusiasm is like a fire, and everyone is the same, and they will definitely be able to strengthen the country. ……”

"Colleagues, all of you at the newspaper today...... All of them were sold on the streets, and all the money from the sale was donated to the navy! Donated to Mrs. Yu for the purchase of ships, I personally pledged another 1,500 yuan! ”

Holding a thick stack of still ink-smelling lots, looking around at the reporters and staff members in the newspaper office who were about to go to the street to sell, Zhu Zhixin's tone seemed a little solemn, just yesterday the "Minbao" had made wanton accusations against his wife's British identity, and now if anyone mentions this matter again, I am afraid that Zhu Zhixin will want to swallow that person alive at the first time.

Last night, because of this incident, he even had a dispute with his colleagues, and he sold his ancestral house and jewelry, and showed up to play music with his body and wife's wealth, just to buy warships for the navy. If he blames such a lady again, then he will really be sorry for his conscience.

Moreover, in his opinion, it is now impossible for the "Minbao" and even the Xingzhong Association to sit idly by when blaming such a lady, whose party leader had sworn in American citizenship a few months ago, and thus renounced his Chinese nationality, a dual nationality that the United States does not recognize.

When Sun Yat-sen explained that he was entering the United States Customs, he was trapped in a wooden house, and in order to avoid being sent back to China, he swore to become a naturalized American citizen with a fake birth certificate, which was definitely a talisman for the revolution. Although this is the necessity of the times, the needs of the times, the same situation, and the needs of the revolution.

However, the parties did not give up their accusations against him for this, first some people pointed out that he had made false oaths and false testimonies, thus questioning his credibility, and then some people pointed out that he took the American passport for the revolution, and now that the Manchu Qing Dynasty has been restored, he was not wanted after returning to China, and he has not heard of his announcement to renounce his American nationality and return his passport.

Although there are various excuses to explain this, in the siege of the newspaper and public opinion circles, the "Minbao" and the Xingzhong Association have struggled to support, and they are simply unable to deal with the criticism from all sides...... Zhu Zhixin can imagine that he is only afraid that Xingzhong will lose his reputation.

"Can a party leader who renounces his nationality, naturalizes, and swears allegiance to another country speak of patriotism?"

No matter how ugly politics is, you can't blame a woman who is far more patriotic than everyone else, especially because it's the situation.

"Extra! Extra! Buy the number outside! Mrs. Chen bought ships with her family, toured various countries in the body, and recruited ships for the navy! ”

The streets are still bustling with people, sometimes mixed with the rare rush of shouting. The noisy streets were silenced by the desperate shouts of the newsboys, and people rushed to buy the ships from the newsboys, and the donations to buy ships shouted in the middle of the numbers once again stirred the nerves of the people.

Although the outside of the trumpet is a little bigger than a palm, it carries the patriotic feelings of a Chinese wife! This news is no less than a bombshell exploded in China after the liberation, and even overshadowed the news that Yuan Shikai and Cixi arrived at the Xiaguan wharf...... On the bank of the Qinhuai River, there is a teahouse that reads "Tasting Tea House". The terrain of the teahouse is very good, there are windows on all sides, and the river is in front of the construction site of Biyong University, the Confucius Temple and the Jiangning Gongyuan that temporarily serves as Biyong University. A few decades ago, the banks of the Qinhuai River also prospered due to the existence of the Gongyuan and Confucius Temple, and it is still the case now.

In the hot summer, there are always many people drinking tea in the pavilion, which is very cool. This teahouse, in the summer, is still selling tea in the evening, sometimes some students studying at Biyong University, most of these students are not admitted to the central civil service, but here in the training class of Biyong University, they will come to the teahouse to drink tea and chat, and sit for a few hours.

The teahouse sells gaiwan tea, and also sells fried sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and peanuts, all of which are packed in a square dish made of white iron. After drinking the tea, "Collect the tea money!" The cousin came to him, counted the plates, and counted the money.

Sometimes, some people drink tea at the window, and after eating a plate of melon seeds, they throw the iron dish out, and "pop", and the dish falls into the water. The cousin reckoned with the disc, or according to the disc. When these parishioners count in the evening, they will naturally find that there are fewer plates, and they will definitely know where these plates are gone, as in the past, the teahouse gathered some students, they either talked about current affairs there, and occasionally even quarreled, the things they quarreled about were very simple, in the past they were fighting for the republic and the constitution, but now they are fighting for whether the British can be the last.

"No, the ruling government started by recovering the Han family, that is, recovering the country of the Han family, and taking foreigners as his wife, wouldn't it provoke ridicule from the world."

"Although Madame is British, her heart is no different from ours, they are all Chinese! The lady scattered her family resources to buy two large warships for the navy, and her patriotism is beyond the reach of the people! ”

"Madame's patriotism is undeniable, but if he is the one who has voted for a referendum on all peoples, deciding that China will be an empire, and ruling as the emperor of the Chinese, will all the people agree to take foreigners as the queen?"

When these young people who are studying at Biyong University and preparing to fight for the civil service examination next year are talking freely there, in the teahouse and at a table, there are two people sitting, both of them are wearing Hanfu, but the power of the tiger on one of them is elegant in Hanfu, but it is difficult to hide the spirit revealed between the figures.

"Wei Ting, you see, it can be public opinion, this is public opinion!"

Yang Du put down the teacup in his hand, looked at the vice chairman in front of him, and then continued.

"Although the lady scattered all her family resources to buy two large warships for the navy, but there are hundreds of millions of ordinary people in the world, if the ruling wants to be the emperor, how can the people, especially those ordinary people, recognize the British as the queen?"

Yang Du in front of him is undoubtedly one of the most powerful officials in Nanjing at present, he has just returned from studying abroad, after passing the civil service examination, although he served in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, but he might as well express his opinions in the newspaper, compared with others arguing in the newspaper about the merits of the imperial system and the republic, he did the first one, first published with the newspaper an article "Comparison of the Constitutionalism of Eastern and Western Countries", and then issued again "The Constitutional Outline Should Absorb the Strengths of Various Countries", and then wrote an article "Implementing the Constitutional Procedure".

And now almost half of China's newspapers are serializing his publication of "The Examination of the South American Republics", showing the history and current situation of the South American republics in front of the people one by one.

Not to mention Nanjing, I'm afraid that there are a few people in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu who are still in captivity who don't know Yang Du's name, and it is precisely because of this that Yuan Shikai will deliberately befriend Yang Du when he comes to Beijing to take up his post, so there is a scene of the two of them tasting tea in the teahouse today.

When Yang Du spoke, Yuan Shikai just listened quietly, and one hand kept stroking the upturned German-style beard on his lips, and his two unusually bright eyes stayed on the books left by the scholars in the teahouse, as if they were contemplating the calligraphy of the champion Gonglong and the phoenix dance.

But only he himself knows, he has not even read those books of dragon flying and phoenix dance, he is thinking about another thing in his heart, three days ago, he came to Nanjing on the "Haiqi", although he is in Nanjing to govern the axe, the ruling is more than affectionate, he is not only the vice chairman of the military committee of the ruling axe, and even the ruling also revealed that he said that he appointed himself as the minister of the army or the minister of the army.

Judging from the appearance, all kinds of signs have shown that a bright new political star has risen in the sky over Nanjing, and the so-called words of Shen Yuan have long been self-defeating. However, although this rising political star may seem glamorous on the outside, there is a deep concern in his personal heart. In this meeting, this hidden advantage will often come out and scorch his heart.

He can clearly feel that behind the affection of the ruling is vigilance, and he also understands that he is by no means a descendant of the ruling party, and this vigilance is inevitable, but the current intimacy, even reuse, is to make Yuan Shikai fearful.

"Draw near to your friends, and even closer to your enemies!"

He believed that the ruling government, who grew up in Europe and the United States since childhood, naturally knew this sentence, and this kind of reuse not only did not make the deliberately sincere Yuan Shikai put his mind at ease, but his heart was more hanging than when he came to Nanjing, thinking that his mind returned to that afternoon three days ago. The conversation between the two began in Yuan Shikai's deliberate sincerity, and when they met, Yuan Shikai even took the initiative to kneel down and lean on his knees first, but this ceremony was supported by the ruling government.

That day, the ruling was even commensurate with his brother, in exchange for this kind of treatment, if he was replaced by someone else, I am afraid that he would have been moved to tears, but although Yuan Shikai was moved, the more affectionate he was in power, the more his heart hung in his heart.

That afternoon, the two talked for three hours, and in the three hours, in the face of the intimacy of the ruling party, Yuan Shikai felt more nervous than when he faced the Queen Mother in the past, not only because he only brought 50 escorts, but also because the Guangfu Army surrounded by nine divisions around his Beiyang Second Town, as long as they wanted, they could exterminate the more than 20,000 Beiyang troops at any time.

The most fundamental reason is that the intimacy of the ruling from beginning to end has been a bit excessive, and he has not even mentioned his burial of Guangxu in the capital, and in the eyes of the ruling government, that incident does not seem to be worth mentioning at all.

The reason why he is burying Guangxu is that the fundamental reason is that he wants to confess when he reprimands or questions from the government, and he is also loyal, at least bury a letter there, but now he ...... "This person's heart is that!" ”

Thinking that Yuan Shikai sighed softly in his heart, now he really can't figure it out, whether he wants to sink Yuan or suppress Yuan, but in any case, he knows that as long as his two town soldiers are reorganized, the Beiyang Army, which has been painstakingly operated for 7 years, will no longer exist. I'm afraid that when the time comes, I'm going to embark on the road of my uncle, who has always disdained, and when I'm in office, I am majestic, and when I am mobilized, I don't belong to a person.

The most important reason for coming to Nanjing is that three divisions of the anti-Russian army arrived in Beijing, two divisions attacked Beijing, and one division was stationed in Dagu. Then he transported as many as six divisions of Dagu with a fleet, and nearly 150,000 troops from the 9th division of the Restoration Army in Beijing and Tianjin were surrounded by 150,000 people.

If he says that he does not believe in himself, he is afraid that he will ...... Thinking to himself, Yuan Shikai only felt a chill on his neck, and he seemed to be aware of the big knife hidden behind that smiling face that could be cut at any time.

And Yang Du, who was in the middle of his life, did not expect Yuan Shikai's heart to be tight, but suddenly lowered his voice.

"Vice Chairman, do you think the ruling power is likely to be the emperor or the president?"

Yuan Shikai, who came back to his senses, touched the lid of the tea bowl and thought for a while.

"The intention of governing still needs to agree with the will of the people, and in the eyes of today's public opinion, it is almost a foregone conclusion that ruling another dynasty will be the emperor."

said on his lips, but in his heart Yuan Shikai secretly screamed that it was a pity, he had never agreed to the republic as much as he did now, if he practiced the republican system, he might be able to become a greater president, those who advocate the republic, how many people do not have this idea? Thinking about him, he sneered, the so-called what is for the country and the people, and what the trend of the world is, is nothing more than an excuse, but the real reason is for him to fight for that power.

Those people may be naïve to think that he is a republic, and the overall situation is decided. But this military power is all in the hands of the government, and it is difficult for them not to see the lifelong presidents of South America in the "Examination Schools of South American Republics" written by Yang Du.

Compared with the temptation of the position of the president, he understands better than anyone else that there is no military power, and the president is purely negotiable. In the past few days, whenever he thought of the affection of the ruling party to himself, as well as the things behind the intimacy, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but feel his heart beating and panting, and he was drenched in cold sweat.

He can't just watch death come and take precautions, he has to take precautions. Of course, the mutiny of those generals in South America is also a precedent that can be emulated. However, he knew that he did not have the same conditions as Cao Ying now, this method was not advisable, and everything was empty talk without an army. And the ruling not only took his military power, but even Cai Songpo did not keep his military power in Guangdong.

If you want to protect yourself, the most effective way that can be adopted is for China to implement a constitutional monarchy after he becomes emperor in power, so that the emperor cannot do whatever he wants.

The real power of the constitutional monarchy is in the hands of the prime minister, even if he could not become the prime minister of the cabinet at that time, Yuan Shikai believes that with his ability, one day, he will definitely be able to become the prime minister of the cabinet, and even if someone else becomes the prime minister of the cabinet, he will not necessarily let the emperor kill himself as the vice chairman, and then he can protect himself.

Right! It is necessary to establish a constitution, and there is no good way to protect oneself without this; Moreover, now that the domestic confrontation with the constitution has become a foregone conclusion, and China's voice is getting higher and higher in the country, it has gradually become a trend, and he will implement the constitution in order to elect the imperial system by the people, and if he follows this trend, he will be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

"The democratically elected monarchy is inevitable!"

As he spoke, Yang Du swept around the scholars around him with his eyes before he lowered his voice again.

"However, it is said that there is still a concern about the emperor in power!"

"Oh? What's the concern? ”

When he asked this sentence, Yuan Shikai had already got an answer in his heart.

"The ruling is the emperor, since it is the work of the restoration, how can the people look forward to it, but the wife of the ruling is the British, and the foolish people in the world are not only billions, if the ruling is the emperor, with the British as the queen, I am afraid that the people will be emotionally unacceptable, and the Xingzhong Society and the republican factions are all on this ground, saying that they are full of people, and he is the king!"

"Ridiculous!"

Yuan Shikai snorted coldly.

"Even after his wife, he is the son of the ruling prince of the dynasty, and the son of the ruling has no worries!"

As he spoke, Yuan Shikai said coldly again.

"It's a pity that the ruling is too lenient to others, otherwise these people will not be allowed to talk nonsense there!"

said that he was generous, but Yuan Shikai sighed at the difference between people, those revolutionary parties were there to make a big fuss, and they didn't care about the government, but they ...... This generosity also varies from person to person! That group of revolutionaries may be ants that cannot shake the edifice in the eyes of the ruling party, and they ...... The ruling party really thinks too highly of itself.

"Although it is nonsense, but the gibberish will always stir up his plan to govern, and we should worry about the king as a courtier! There is one thing to ask for, and I hope that the vice chairman will be fulfilled! ”

Yang Du's words were just an exit, and Yuan Shikai hurriedly waved his hand and said.

"Gentlemen, don't harm me, how can we be involved in the affairs of the ruling family......

"The vice chairman is afraid of ......"

"This vice chairman is not afraid, but the ruling family affairs, and there is no reason for outsiders to interfere! What's more, with the wisdom of the lady, how can we bear to blame it! ”

Yuan Shikai immediately said that he knew that he didn't have the capital to mix in this pool of water, and in the end he would only make the ruling unpleasant.

"Vice chairman, don't you think that you are like those who have no plans!"

Yang Du's words were a little mocking, and his face showed some smugness.

"With the wisdom of Mrs., how can I blame Mrs.!"

(To be continued)