April 3, 1896.

Under the persecution of Prince Li Shiduo and other princes of the clan, Emperor Guangxu was forced to cancel the "ban on visiting" the Empress Dowager Cixi and allowed the Manchu clan to visit Cixi in the Summer Palace.

As soon as this order is opened, it is equivalent to Cixi's comeback.

Cixi's comeback...... This is not a big problem, whether it is the Military Aircraft Department, the Six Shangshu, the governors of various places, but all the places that hold important positions are personally appointed by Emperor Guangxu Zaiyan, and many of them are practical ministers of the Hu Chuyuan faction, or even more radical constitutionalist ministers...... This is a matter between Emperor Guangxu Zaiyan and Zhang Baixi, and Hu Chuyuan did not participate too much.

Cixi's comeback was only unexpected, and that was that the Manchurians began to divide sharply.

To be precise, the Manchus themselves opposed the Guangxu Emperor Zaiyan, believing that Zaixiang failed to safeguard the interests of their Manchus, or even failed to do so, and this is the crux of the problem.

The suppressive force of the Manchus against Zai Xiang still exists, everyone has safety problems, and Zai Xiang lives under the protection of the Manchus, and without this protection, the emperor is also very dangerous.

Sure enough, on April 11, Cixi "suggested" that Emperor Guangxu remove the military aircraft foreman Yi, who was already seriously ill and failed to govern for several months, and the power basically fell into the hands of Zhang Baixi, which just gave Cixi an excuse.

Cixi said that now that the imperial court has a rich income, it is not appropriate to treat us Manchu people badly, and the matter of starving to death Manchu people cannot happen a second time.

Zhang Baixi and Emperor Guangxu Zaiyan didn't want to restore the Manchu worship, after all, it was not a particularly big problem for the current Qing Dynasty, the problem was that the entire public opinion environment was already very unfavorable to the Manchus, and the Manchus also proposed to stop allocating funds to the navy and the new army and reduce military spending...... There is also a reason for this, because there are too many constitutionalists in the navy and the new army.

The struggle between the two sides was mainly focused on "Fengyang" and "constitutionalization", and the Guangxu Emperor Zaiyan very much wanted to emulate the constitutionalism of the great powers, and it is said that he had a list of constitutional cabinets, Hu Chuyuan was the first minister of the Qing Empire, and Zhang Baixi was the next prime minister of the interior.

This stabbed a hornet's nest full of people.

I don't know if it's true or not, Shi Duo and Gangyi and others have asked for the abolition of Emperor Guangxu.

Cixi knew very well what the result would be once the political struggle failed, so she really didn't want to completely turn her face with Emperor Guangxu Zaiyan, but just persuaded Zai Xiang to stabilize the overall situation first, and whether to establish a constitution or not was secondary, she also said that the view of politics is fake, and it is true to help Emperor Guangxu Zaiyan get through this difficulty.

Who knows what the hell she thinks?

Perhaps, she also really persuaded Emperor Guangxu to be the commander, so she was in charge, first transferred Wang Yixuan of Qingjun to the governor of Jiumen, and after stabilizing the Beijing division, she immediately promoted Yinchang to be the commander of Zhili, and wanted to take over Lu Guangquan's new army in Huguangying.

Cixi really didn't know the strength and internal structure of the new army in Huguangying, and it seemed that her tricks were nine out of ten, but she stabbed the hornet's nest.

Who is Lu Guangquan?

Anyway, I stabbed a hornet's nest.

When Hu Chuyuan received the telegram, Lu Guangquan had already led his troops to conquer Langfang under the banner of "Weijun Constitutional" and blocked the water in the siege of Yanjing City, and in the navy, Ye Fu, Lu Han and others had already led the Beiyang Navy Division to block Tianjin and Weihai Port to support the constitutional monarchy, and Deng Shichang also echoed in the Nanyang Navy Division.

Ye Zujun was not a member of the Fuxing Society, so Hu Chuyuan transferred him out of the situation in advance, and Lin Yongsheng and Ye Bojun, who stayed in Fuzhou, were the backbone of the Fuxing Society.

April 23, 1896.

Hu Chuyuan secretly led a visiting fleet to Weihai Port.

At this time, Weihai Port has undergone earth-shaking changes, along the artificial fields of Heidao, Huangdao, Heiyu Island and Liugong Island, Hu Chuyuan has built a complete and huge artificial Weihai Peninsula, connecting the entire Liugong Island with Huangdao, Heidao and Wolong Mountain, the entire peninsula covers an area of 18,200 mu, and the area of artificial filling accounts for 70%, forming a good protection for the internal bay.

This inland sea area is also known as Wei Bay.

The island at the exit of the bay was artificially fortified and elevated, with a lighthouse and a fort.

The scale of Weihai Port is several times larger than that of Port Arthur, and the surrounding land for development and utilization is also much larger, after these years of intensified construction, it has now become China's second only to Luoyuan Bay military port, the entire bay has been dredged on a large scale and deepened the port and channel, which can berth ships of 10,000 tons or even 50,000 tons.

In the deepest part of Weihai Port, Sunjiayi, Shandong Machinery Bureau, Weihai Shipyard and maintenance dock facilities are the first in Asia, with two 10,000-ton docks and supporting facilities, but the technical personnel reserve and shipbuilding experience are worse than Fuzhou Shipyard and Jiangnan Shipyard.

It was dawn when the Ningyuan sailed into the harbor, and everything seemed extremely silent.

The sun gradually rose in the distance, and the huge body of the Ningyuan passed through the island and slowly sailed into the harbor, and as it sailed past the harbor, the other ships honked their horns in salute.

Don't think about the situation in Yanjing for the time being, the soldiers of the Beiyang Naval Division were extremely excited when they saw the entry of the Ningyuan.

For so many years, the Qing Navy has always had the world's third largest displacement tonnage fleet, and has also won many big victories in a row, but has not been able to gain the respect of its proper status, in the final analysis, it is the lack of enough heavyweight giant ships in the Qing Navy.

Now, the entry into service of the Ningyuan and Yangyuan can solve these problems.

This is a truly invincible giant, the strongest even in the entire world, with only Britain and France having 12,000-ton battleships.

Oh!!!

Cheers rang out from the decks of the other warships, shaking the entire harbor.

The officers and men of the navy can no longer describe their inner excitement in words, for the official entry of these two ships, Qing Zhengaxe does not know how many times he negotiated with the British, and in the end it was Hu Chuyuan who personally came forward to finally finalize the entire contract and the new price.

Anyway, it's ...... Our Beiyang Naval Division also has a truly world-class battleship.

Listening to the cheers of the soldiers, Hu Chuyuan, who was standing on the deck, also felt extremely encouraged and happy, and listening to everyone's voices, he knew that his hard work was not in vain.

Worth.

It's worth it!!

He could even say that the Ning Yuan level was definitely more powerful than the monarch level who was from the same school.

In terms of armor design, the Ningyuan class itself is stronger than the Junquan class, the thickness of the steel is about the same, but the choice of materials and craftsmanship are higher, the ship speed is faster, but the firepower is slightly weaker, and the victory lies in a higher rate of fire, a more stable main gun, and stronger penetration.

The Ningyuan class has 8 305mm Krupp new breech guns, which are triple in front and rear, with a single-barreled main gun on the left and right, which can penetrate 300mm thick nickel-chromium steel armor at a range of 2500 meters and a 473mm thick nickel-chromium steel plate at a range of 1700 meters.

Due to the maturity of the technology of the armor-piercing delay blasting projectile, as long as it can penetrate the opponent's iron armor, it basically means that the opponent can be sunk, and at a distance of 1200 meters to 1700 meters, it is completely possible for the Ning Yuan class to sink the monarch class.

The idea that the Ningyuan-level and the Dreadnought-level that may appear in the later stage is basically the same, and in actual use, the combat power of the Ningyuan-level is also better.

In the sound of the whistle of salute, Ningyuan and Yangyuan arrived at the 10,000-ton ship port vacant in advance by the Beiyang Naval Division, and the two giant ships looked extremely majestic and majestic under the sunlight, which was almost 70% larger than the surrounding Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, which was really impressive.

Ten years ago.

In 1886, the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan entered the service of the Beiyang Naval Division, and in one fell swoop they became the ironclad ships that shocked the whole of Asia.

Time passed, and the same thing happened to Ning Yuan and Yang Yuan again.

In order to prevent the Ning Yuan class from serving in the Chinese Navy, he tried everything he could, but in the end he was disintegrated by Hu Chuyuan one by one, and now, he is really annoyed, right?

Hu Chuyuan thought in his heart and chuckled.

With the deliberate support of Britain and France, he was gradually recovering, and his industry and economy were back on the right track, but even so, they could not continue to engage in an arms race with the Qing Dynasty, and could only rely on the original foundation to continue to build some cruisers and defense ships for coastal coastal defense.

After the Ningyuan stopped in the port, Hu Chuyuan took the people off the ship.

Ye Fu had already come up with more than a dozen pipe belts, and when they saw Hu Chuyuan, everyone visited one after another to meet this Zhongtang lord.

Nave.

In the Qing court, what a terrifying level this is, and when he reaches this position, he is basically the pinnacle of Qing Dynasty politics.

He Jing has been planning all his life, but in the end he is just a co-organizer of the university, not even a middle hall.

Hu Chuyuan's eyes closed slightly, and he nodded lightly, even if he had seen everyone. Immediately, he led his entourage and staff to the Admiral of the Navy, and in the sound of hula, all the pipes and bands rushed up and followed behind, scrambling to be the first.

Entering the Daya, he sat down in the position of the admiral, his expression was still indifferent and solemn.

His gaze swept to Ye Fu, his expression gradually became solemn, and he sighed softly: "Lord Ye, you are so bold, you actually support Lu Guangquan and Admiral Lu to rebel!" ”

Ye Fu was taken aback, and then replied quietly: "Back to Lord Zhongtang, this time is really a major event for the country, and it must be done as a last resort!" ”

Hu Chuyuan asked flatly, "How is the situation now?" ”

Ye Fu continued: "Back in the middle hall, Lu Guangquan and Admiral Lu led more than 20,000 troops, guarding the surrounding important places of the Beijing Division, and the troops were scattered, and they were unable to enter the Beijing Division for a while. There are training troops in Shanxi and Henan who have been transferred to King Qin, but at present, whether it is the Emperor Qin or the Empress Dowager Qin has not been decided for a while. ”

"Well, this matter still needs to be cautious!"

Hu Chuyuan asked knowingly, and said knowingly, and he was also thinking quickly in his heart.

Lu Guangquan dared to make a move, naturally he had his reasons.

It is said that there are more than 20,000 people, but in fact, it is far more than that.

Over the years, under Hu Chuyuan's covert protection and protection, the five large battalions and three reserve battalions under Lu Guangquan's tent have been overstaffed, and each battalion has about 5,000 people, each with an additional vertical establishment.

Lu Guangquan himself controlled about 40,000 troops, and before deciding to make a move, Liu Yongfu, Zhang Lingpu, and the Philippine Reading Army successively sent out more than 20,000 troops to hide between Beijing and Tianjin, and temporarily transferred the arsenals of Beiyang and Huguang Battalions to organize these people, known as the Righteous Army, and the actual combat strength was very amazing.

In addition, Liu Mingchuan had four Jianghuai battalions in his hands, and Duan Qirui controlled two of them, and they were also very infiltrated by the Fuxing Society, and these battalions were concentrated on the Liaodong Peninsula and Jinzhou, and they could come down to support at any time.

Therefore, Lu Guangquan dared to do it.

Lu Guangquan is a shrewd person, as soon as he gets started, he will control the railway first, and it will be difficult for the troops from other provinces to get in, coupled with the blockade of Ye Fu and Lu Han on the navy, Cixi and Emperor Guangxu are isolated at this time.

To put it mildly, under the condition that Liu Mingchuan did not move his troops in advance, except for Liu Jintang's Hunan army and Mei Qizhao's Jiangxi army rushing over from Liangjiang, Fujian and Zhejiang, no one dared to fight with Huguangying head-on.

Put together...... I can't fuck it.

If it weren't for Hu Chuyuan's advice in advance...... Even if he really did it, he tried his best not to bombard Yanjing City, Lu Guangquan had already bombarded Yanjing by now, this person didn't care about Zaiyan's life or death, and he was afraid that a bombardment would make him even happier.

After learning about the general situation from Ye Fu, Hu Chuyuan didn't say anything immediately.

He continued to glance at it, looking at his age, and he generally knew that these people were all Ye Fu's descendants, that is, members of the Fuxing Society.

Hu Chuyuan didn't say anything, just asked everyone to retreat first, he thought about it alone in the big ya, weighing the specific gains and losses, pros and cons.

He has carefully scrutinized every bit of it many times, but if he really has to give an order, it will not be easy to make a decision.

After thinking about it for a while, Hu Chuyuan invited Ye Fu, Miao Quansun and Chen Shanyuan in again, and then asked Ye Fudao: "Where is Lu Guangquan, have you contacted recently?" ”

Ye Fu replied: "Back to Zhongtang, I just sent a telegram last night, the situation on his side is quite stable, the ammunition depot in Langfang has been mastered by him, the artillery and machine guns are complete, and the Eight Banners of the Forbidden Brigade are full of people who collapsed in a battle, and they cannot form an army, and now Yanjing City has already been in chaos, and there is no power to resist, and the army outside does not dare to push it easily." Qingyu was guarding in Shanxi, but he wanted to borrow troops from Tan Zhonglin, the governor of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, but according to the lower officials, Governor Tan was still hesitant and did not send troops. ”

Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly, and said: "Tan Zhonglin is a smart man, he won't send troops, not to mention that there are not many Hunan troops in his hands, let alone elite." ”

Speaking of this, he became more and more aware that the situation was already like this, so he instructed Ye Fu: "You send another telegram to Lu Guangquan, and in your name, persuade him to be a little restless, and he must protect the emperor's safety first." Military discipline must be strict, and it is not allowed to spread wild in Beijing, and it has lost the support of the people! ”

"Yes!"

Ye Fu replied deeply.

Hu Chuyuan glanced at Miao Quansun again, and asked helplessly: "Mr. Miao, has the message been written?" ”

Miao Quansun immediately took out a telegram that had already been prepared, handed it to Hu Chuyuan, and said, "It has been written." ”

This telegram was to be sent to the governors and governors of various places, to the effect that Hu Chuyuan had received a tip-off declaring that the Empress Dowager Cixi, Prince Li Shiduo, and other Manchu ministers intended to put the Guangxu Emperor under house arrest, and that Cixi wanted to return to the throne and abolish all the important ministers.

Hu Chuyuan has a secret decree here, and Emperor Guangxu Zai Xiang sent a telegram to him before, saying that the situation was critical, and asked him to lead the troops to protect the emperor, and the soldiers and brigades in various places should be rectified on the spot, and they were not allowed to enter Zhili.

Of course, this telegram is there, but it is not a secret decree, but it is just a "decree" to Hu Chuyuan to return to Beijing as soon as possible to stabilize the situation.

That's it anyway.

After so many years in the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty, Hu Chuyuan's level of mastery of classical Chinese is still relatively inferior, so he has always had several literati masters who are proficient in politics around him to help him draft his writing and consider his words.

Hu Chuyuan can read or write, and when he took this telegram and looked at it, he knew that Miao Quansun had indeed put a lot of effort into it, and the whole telegram was only more than 100 words, but it was just right, and there was another deep meaning in secret, so that the governors of various places supported the constitution.

The meaning of this is very simple, whether everyone agrees or not, there is only one way to go in front of the constitution, only in this way can we keep the rights in everyone's hands, keep the emperor, and continue to suppress Cixi and others.

Otherwise, they would not have been able to fight with Cixi in terms of etiquette, and at that time, all the important ministers promoted by Zai Yan would be slaughtered by the Manchurian conservatives and rigids.

Hu Chuyuan counted it, there were only 118 words, which was really a word for words, and each one could not be deleted, using the Chinese language to the extreme.

Therefore, Jinshi's eight-strand literary skills are also useful.

After reading it, Hu Chuyuan was very satisfied and forwarded the telegram to Chen Shanyuan, asking Chen Shanyuan to immediately send a telegram to the governors and governors of all parts of the country through the Weihai Bureau.

At present, troops are being dispatched everywhere, and the reason why everyone does not send troops is that they can't see the situation clearly, and they don't know whether they are protecting the emperor or protecting Cixi.

As soon as Hu Chuyuan's telegram was sent, everyone understood.

The problem is not big, continue to let the divisions of the Qinwang delay time at the door of the house, and until the problem of delaying Yanjing is solved, everyone will not have to continue to go north to Qinwang.

Not long after the telegram was sent, the Northeast immediately replied with a telegram, it turned out that Liu Mingchuan was dead, but he temporarily told Nie Shicheng and Liu Shengxiu that they must not leak the news, and firmly tied the troops to the north of Jinzhou, neither to participate in the mutiny, nor to prevent the mutiny.

The telegram was replied by Liu Shengxiu, asking if Hu Chuyuan should mourn?

Seeing the message, Hu Chuyuan sighed silently and regretfully.

1896, the year of the Monkey.

This year, Hu Chuyuan was 36 years old, it happened to be the year of his birth, and it seemed that the year was unfavorable, at the beginning of the year, he failed to negotiate a stake in the steel industry in Germany, and before he returned to China, Yan Shizhang, who returned to Shandong to recuperate, died of illness, and he didn't even have time to wait for Hu Chuyuan to return to China to see him for the last time.

The first person in the Hunan army, Liu Jintang, the governor of Liangguang, suffered a stroke, and his life was saved, but he was partially paralyzed, and now he is also delaying.

What about Liu Kunyi?

He is also seriously ill, his eyes are said to have been unable to see, and now he just wants to keep his name at the last moment, and retreat, but he encountered a mutiny, and the surname Suo withdrew to Hunan at a critical moment to recuperate, and the governor of Liangjiang was acted by Liu Hongxi, the governor of Anhui.

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but sigh, he knew that in 1896...... Many old people can't get through it.

It's okay if you can't get through it, it's time for newcomers to take the position.

A few days later, Lu Guangquan broke through the front gate, and the troops entered the Beijing Division, and fought with the elite of the Eight Banners Battalion in the streets of the city for a few hours, and then entered the Forbidden City, and then attacked the Summer Palace to take Cixi, and transferred her to Xiangshan Jingyi Garden for supervision.

Cixi has always wanted to escape from the Beijing Division, but the problem is that Lu Guangquan's troops attacked too quickly, and each gate was guarded by troops.

Only then did Hu Chuyuan lead his troops into Yanjing, temporarily control the situation, and then led his troops into the Forbidden City under the protection of the Fuwei Battalion, temporarily taking over Lu Guangquan's department.

(To be continued)