On January 7, Zhang Jian, Minister of Industry and Commerce, on behalf of Beiyang Zhengaxe, conducted relevant negotiations with the French Consul Hesse entrusted by the French Panama Canal Company to represent the French Consul in China.

Because Russia, together with Germany and France, exerted tremendous diplomatic pressure on Britain on the issue of the Boer War, it had a very bad negative impact on Britain in the entire European society, and Britain was politically isolated and embarrassed by European countries. As a result, Britain had to look for foreign aid to break the political isolation of European countries from Britain.

Britain could only turn to the United States for help, but at this time Britain and the United States had many interests at odds, and in order to persuade the United States to help, Britain had to make concessions on some issues.

In May 1879, the Panama Canal Association invited Fernand Brown, a famous French diplomat who made a name for himself in planning and organizing the construction of the Suez Canal. Morality? Reseb convened an international conference to deliberate on the Panama Canal issue, which was also attended by representatives of Britain, the United States, Germany, and other countries, and adopted the decision to dig the Panama Canal despite the strong opposition of the US representatives. On July 5, the French Interoceanic Canal Engineering Corporation was formally established, obtained the concession right to dig the canal, and began to actively prepare for the canal project.

This move is a very big blow to the United States, because the United States built a railroad connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on the Isthmus of Panama in the 50s, and if the Panama Canal is opened, the Americans' railroad will be built in vain, not only tens of millions of dollars will be built, but also the profits of the Panamanian trade route will be taken away by France.

The Americans were angry about the construction of the Panama Canal, and the British also tried to stop the rapid economic development of the United States in order to suppress it, but now Britain is no longer able to stop the economic development of the United States, so it has to adopt the means of winning over the United States.

Now that France was at odds with Britain on the Boer question, the British were ready to trick France on the Panama Canal.

On December 15, 1899, after protracted negotiations, Britain and the United States finally signed the Treaty between the United States and Great Britain on the Promotion of the Construction of Navigable Rivers, also known as the Treaty of John Ponsford, to replace the original "Clayton-Bulwer Treaty". The New Covenant established that the United States presided over the construction of the Panama Canal and enjoyed the privilege of formulating regulations for the management of the canal, and Britain only retained the right to freedom of navigation of the canal, and on December 20, the United States threw out three amendments to further strengthen its control over the canal, and Britain also accepted it unconditionally.

And in return, the American political axe declared its support for Britain on the Boer issue. The statement of the United States has forced European countries to reposition their positions, at least not to poke the scars of the British as before.

While the British breathed a sigh of relief, the French were sad. The French company Panama had to face a huge economic backlog and political threat from the United States.

After the Panama scandal, the French suffered a waterloo fiasco in the construction of the Panama Canal. In August 1899, the United States sent a naval expert named John Brown? The technical committee headed by Volcker came to Paris and approached the French political axe to explore the possible name of the transfer of the canal concession. A month later, a request was made to acquire the French Canal Company, but the company's general manager, Yu Tan, and the French political axe refused. On December 27, 1899, the United States established a Panama Canal Company in New Jersey to launch a large-scale lobbying campaign to create public opinion for the acquisition of the French Canal Company. This trick did not work, and the United States turned to the method of attacking the east and the west, deliberately saying that it would cooperate with Nicaragua and build another canal to compete with the Panama Canal. Silva, without consulting his own country's political axe, hastily drafted an agreement to transfer the concession of the French Canal Company to the United States, proposing that the United States should build the canal instead of France, with a lease term of 100 years, which could be renewed after the expiration of the term, and the United States could station troops in the canal zone and only pay the Colombian political axe $600,000 a year.

Silva's hasty plan was severely refuted by the Colombian political axe, but its contents were accidentally leaked out, becoming a trump card for the United States to threaten Colombia, and Silva was quickly removed from office. In order to put pressure on the French Canal Company, which was in trouble at home and abroad, on January 3, 1900, the U.S. Congress began to discuss the issue of appropriation for the construction of the Nicaragua Canal, which had a great impact on the construction of the Panama Canal.

Hutan, the general manager of the French Canal Company, who has always been known for his tough attitude, will have to resign if he cannot find financial and political help.

So, Yu Dan looked for partners all over the world, but most countries either did not have the funds or did not dare to mess with the United States, while Germany had the money and was interested in it, but the French political axe was against it.

He knew that China had opened up a colony in the Caribbean Sea, and that Puerto Rico's rubber, tobacco, sugar, cocoa and other raw materials were urgently needed by China, and that China had reason to participate in the construction of the Panama Canal, whether for economic or military purposes.

Yu Dan had the attitude of giving it a try, but the result made him very excited.

Zhang Jian received Wang Chenhao's direct instructions and quickly reached an agreement with the French company on the Panama Canal negotiations. After the Panama scandal, the French Panama Canal Company is now left with only $20.89 million in machinery and equipment and other assets. The Chinese political axe injected 20 million dragon coins to acquire a 51% stake in the canal, which Yu Dan also agreed.

On January 12, the Chinese Consul in Colombia formally signed a financing agreement with the French Panama Canal Company on behalf of the Chinese political axe.

On the same day, the US ambassador to China lodged a protest with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, but for the sake of huge economic and military interests, the Chinese political axe calmly ignored the protests of the Americans.

After China intervened in the Panama Canal project, Yu Dan was still appointed as the commander-in-chief of the project, but in order to prevent the recurrence of similar Panama scandals, the Chinese political axe sent special personnel to manage the property, and Yu Dan did not object to this.

The intervention of the Chinese political axe allowed the Panama Canal project to be fully restored, the budget was controlled, and the construction schedule was greatly advanced. According to the previous commitment of the Panama Canal Company to the Colombian political axe, the canal would be completed in early 1904, but with the huge injection of Chinese funds and the recruitment of 100,000 workers from China to participate in the construction of the Panama Canal, Yu Dan promised the Chinese political axe that it would be completed in the summer of 1902.

China conscripted 100,000 workers to build the Panama Canal, a decision made by Wang Chenhao from the starting point of his overall strategy. Wang Chenhao knew that the United States would not give up if it could not get the Panama Canal, and he knew that the United States would therefore plot to let Panama read and monopolize the right to dig the Panama Canal.

Panama had a population of 270,000 at this time, of which 70,000 were laborers recruited from Colombia by French companies. Wang Chenhao sent 100,000 Chinese laborers to Panama to replace the original 70,000 Colombians, so that the population of Panama would reach 300,000, of which 100,000 were Chinese.

Once the 100,000 Chinese laborers complete the construction of the Panama Canal, they will remain in Panama, and the Chinese political axe will send their families to Panama, which will have a population of 600,000 and the Chinese population will make up three-quarters. In this way, the U.S. plan to instigate Panama's reading power plan will be difficult to implement, and even if the reading power movement does occur at the time of the reversal, the Panamanian Chinese population after reading power will dominate, and the United States will not be able to seize the Panama Canal. Wang Chenhao even planned for the worst, and as a last resort, Wang Chenhao would instigate Panama before the United States to control Panama and the Panama Canal forever in China's hands.

In Wang Chenhao's view, although the economic benefits of the Panama Canal are very huge, its military value is not weak. The United States sees the Caribbean as America's backyard, and the Panama Canal is the gateway to its backyard. As long as China controls the Panama Canal, then it can stab the Americans in the ass at any time, and although this strategic value is not yet valued by the United States at the moment, the Americans will definitely realize it in less than 20 years.

Wang Chenhao knew that the United States would eventually become China's biggest enemy, so Wang Chenhao took advantage of the fact that the Americans did not yet know their future to strike first and control the United States strategically.

However, there are also many people in the United States who have great knowledge, and one of them is Roosevelt.

Roosevelt encouraged US President McKinley to put pressure on China to abandon China's participation in the Panama Canal project, but McKinley was busy running for re-election, and McKinley chose to put Roosevelt's suggestion on hold for the time being until the election was successful. Roosevelt did not insist, he thought that France would not come to an agreement with China so quickly, and as a result, the Chinese and French companies reached an agreement in less than a week, and quickly completed the integration of the joint companies.

When McKinley returned with joy after being re-elected, he found that the Panama Canal had fallen into Chinese hands, and he couldn't help but regret it.

Subsequently, McKinley and his political axe staff team studied the fact that the Panama Canal had fallen into the hands of the Chinese and developed a response plan.

Roosevelt proposed the collapse of the newly established Sino-French Panama Canal Company, as was the case with the French Interoceanic Canal Company and the French Panama Canal Company, which had been building the Panama Canal before the collapse. However, the bill was rejected by Congress because the Tzeringen family, the maiden family of Wang Chenhao's second wife, Rothschild, and US congressional officials controlled by the Rockefeller consortium, the Citigroup consortium, the Cleveland consortium and the Bank of America consortium, which have close ties to Wang Chenhao, voted against it.

McKinley then proposed that Congress approve the construction of the canal in Nicaragua, but lawmakers, also controlled by Rockefeller, voted against it, citing the sheer size of the canal, its location near a volcano, and the imminent completion of the Panama Canal, which no longer makes economic sense.

Both of McKinley's and Roosevelt's proposals were attacked by the Rockefeller consortium, a move that greatly displeased McKinley and Roosevelt, among a group of politicians. McKinley and Roosevelt believed that the Rockefeller consortium and the Zeringen family had too close ties with China, and if they wanted to deal with China, they had to clean up the Rockefeller consortium and the Zeringen family.

At this time, Rockefeller Jr. did not know that he and his huge trust consortium were about to face retaliation from a group of Republican politicians such as McKinley and Roosevelt, and that the Republican Party belonging to the Rockefeller consortium would turn against his master, which would become the most sensational event of the 20th century.

Wang Chenhao left Yanjing only after learning of China's successful intervention in the construction of the Panama Canal.

Of course, Wang Chenhao's departure from Yanjing is not clear to the outside world. When people thought that Wang Chenhao was still working in the official residence, Wang Chenhao had quietly arrived at the headquarters of the local fleet in Gaochang Temple in Shanghai on January 13.

In the headquarters office, the telephone line was already available to communicate with the Ministry of Defense in Yanjing two months ago. At present, China's non-governmental telephone lines are still underdeveloped, and only a few large cities have opened telephone services, but they are not connected to each other, and they are reading power. The military's telephone lines and telegraph lines are connected to each other, and in order to prevent eavesdropping, most of them are submarine cables, and special personnel are also regularly inspected on land.

Wang Chenhao sat in the office of the Gaochang Temple Naval Headquarters, and he could contact his subordinates at any time and know what was happening in Yanjing as soon as possible.

On January 14, the day before Guangxu and Cixi's action, the Homeland Security Agency quietly handed over a state-of-the-art movie camera to Li Lianying.

Li Lianying was not optimistic that Guangxu would win, so in the end he had to choose to side with Wang Chenhao in order to save his life. According to Li Bing's instructions, Li Lianying covered several security bureau agents to secretly install the camera in the main hall of Kunning Palace. According to Li Bing's plan, he must have enough evidence to deal with public opinion at home and abroad, so under the guidance of Wang Chenhao, he planned to use a camera to record the evidence of Guangxu and Cixi's conspiracy to assassinate Wang Chenhao.

In the Kunning Palace, Guangxu and Cixi meet, and in order to ensure the success of tomorrow's operation, Li Lianying suggests a dress rehearsal in order to test the killers' abilities.

Although Guangxu and Cixi couldn't believe Li Lianying, they also felt that they had to test their hearts to have the bottom, so they agreed to Li Lianying's suggestion.

For the next hour, dozens of eunuchs and palace maids practiced methods of assassinating Wang Chenhao under various circumstances with weapons in hand. In order to be more realistic, Li Lianying asked a guard to wear the prime minister's official uniform to play Wang Chenhao. As a result, these killers who had been trained for more than a year subconsciously swarmed up and killed "Wang Chenhao" with a knife, and then Guangxu and Cixi stood in front of the corpse of "Wang Chenhao" and laughed loudly with all the killers, and Guangxu even picked up a dagger and slashed a few times to show his anger.

What they don't know is that all this was filmed with a camera by the security bureau agents hidden in the dark grid, which became ironclad evidence that Guangxu and Cixi plotted to assassinate Wang Chenhao.

Under the cover of Li Lianying, agents of the Security Bureau took the film out of the palace and handed it over to Li Bing.

After Li Bing got the film, he immediately ordered someone to edit the film to highlight the ferocity of Guangxu and Cixi as much as possible, so as to achieve a shocking effect. Although it is a silent movie, the scenes of Guangxu and Cixi laughing wildly are given close-ups, so it is easier for the audience to have a strong antipathy towards Guangxu and Cixi.

After Li Bing completed the preparations to deal with public opinion, Wang Shizhen, Ruan Zhongshu and Li Guodong also took action on the other side.

That night, after Wang Shizhen made a telephone report to Wang Chenhao, Wang Chenhao approved Wang Shizhen's action plan. As a result, Wang Shizhen sat in charge of the Ministry of National Defense and issued an order to all major military regions and units throughout the country to be prepared for combat readiness. In particular, the troops in Kulun, Guisui, Mukden, Jilin, and Heilongjiang were ordered to quickly take control of the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Manchurian Eight Banners Guards and police units living in the cities, and to execute them on the spot if anyone resisted.

Garrison troops elsewhere in the country remained on alert, and local police and National Guard quickly seized the Eight Banners within the ranks and turned them over to the local CIA or Homeland Security Agency.

Martial law and curfew were imposed in Yanjing City, and all the Janissaries were dispatched to block the streets and alleys, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving the city. The Praetorian Guards were ordered to capture the rebellious party under Cixi such as Rong Lu, as well as the royalists who supported Guangxu. Among them, there were dozens of killers hiding in Ronglu's mansion, and there were clashes with the Praetorian Guard, and more than a dozen people including Ronglu and Baron were killed on the spot, and the rest of the rebels were arrested. More than 30 Belle Bezi, including the royalist Zaicheng, were meeting to discuss countermeasures, but they were dismissed.

The Imperial Forest Army blockaded the Forbidden City, imprisoned Cixi and Guangxu in Kunning Palace, and all the other eunuchs, palace maids, and concubines were driven to the square outside the main hall of Kunning Palace, and began to arrest people according to the list provided by Li Lianying.

Cixi and Guangxu were confined in the main hall, listening to the sound outside, Guangxu was already sitting on the chair in fear, but Cixi still forced her composure.

Soon, the door of the main hall opened, and Li Guodong and Li Bing walked in, followed by more than a dozen sturdy agents.

"Bold minions, are you going to rebel?"

Guangxu saw a group of black-clothed people coming in, murderous, and immediately shouted loudly.

Li Guodong glanced at Guangxu and Cixi, snorted coldly, and said: "Meet me, the contemptible Li Guodong has been added as the director of the CIA, and next to him is Li Bing, director of the Bureau of Homeland Security. ”

Li Guodong is used to killing people, so he is quite calm. Similarly, although Li Bing didn't say a word, his eyes looked at Guangxu and Cixi as calmly as if he were looking at a dead man.

"How dare you kill the king?"

Guangxu was extremely frightened, and suddenly his voice trembled.

Cixi couldn't calm down anymore, and immediately asked: "We have handed over power, why did you kill us?" ”

Li Guodong said: "Just rely on your thief heart to not die!" If you try to subvert the political axe and assassinate the prime minister, you deserve to die. ”

Li Bing said impatiently: "What do you have to talk to them?" Hurry up and deal with it, we still deal with a lot of people tonight? You don't want to sleep anymore? ”

Li Guodong thought about it, and with a wave of his hand, several agents immediately stepped forward to grab Cixi and Guangxu.

"Do it! Be quick! ”

(To be continued)