At a time when the people of the whole country are immersed in the joy of diplomatic victory against Russia, a big conspiracy against Wang Chenhao and his Beiyang political axe is quietly going on.

In the main hall of the dormitory, dozens of palace ladies wearing revealing flag uniforms danced. Guangxu, as usual, was immersed in the sound of drums and the drunken life.

Outside the main hall, several imperial guards were ordered to protect Guangxu's safety, but in fact, it was the intelligence department that placed eyeliner around Guangxu, monitoring Guangxu's every move. The same is true of Cixi's side.

"Guangxu is enjoying it inside, but his brothers are standing guard for him outside, it's really unfair."

"Looking at this posture, it is estimated that it will be all night today."

"He enjoyed it, but his brothers suffered here."

"Why don't we find a place to have a drink or two?"

"I'm afraid that's not right, right? What if the top is to blame? ”

"Guangxu is already rotten, what threat can he have to the prime minister?"

"That's what I said, the current Guangxu is Liu Adou, who can't think about it, and he can't set off any waves, let's go, go outside to drink flower wine."

After keeping an eye on Guangxu for several months, several guards finally couldn't bear it anymore and relaxed their surveillance of Guangxu.

As soon as they left, Li Lianying hurriedly went to Guangxu and whispered a few words.

Guangxu asked, "Are they all gone?" ”

Li Lianying nodded and said, "If you go back to the emperor, yes, the eyeliner is gone!" ”

Guangxu nodded, got up suddenly, and the trance-like expression on his face before suddenly disappeared, and it turned out to be deliberately pretended.

Guangxu clapped his hands, and the singing and dancing music suddenly stopped, and then all the eunuchs and Gong'e changed their daggers to practice assassination and fighting.

It turned out that since the coup d'état, Guangxu and Cixi finally let Wang Chenhao take advantage of the competition for power. Wang Chenhao and his Beiyang political axe completely hollowed out the imperial power, the Han people turned over and became the masters of the world, and the children of the banner people lost their dominant position.

Both Guangxu and Cixi regretted it, so they turned their rivalry into a jade silk, and the two joined forces against Wang Chenhao, intending to regain power, because they knew that the longer they dragged on, the weaker their power would be, and the more stable Wang Chenhao's rule would be, so they had to seize the time to plan.

However, both of them knew that Wang Chenhao was very smart, so the ordinary strategy against ordinary people could not hide from Wang Chenhao's eyes at all.

So Cixi and Guangxu made a plan, Cixi attracted Wang Chenhao's attention head-on, she frequently summoned the minister of civil and military affairs, deliberately released a signal that she intended to return to power, and attracted Wang Chenhao's attention. At the same time, in order to dispel Wang Chenhao's suspicion of Guangxu, Guangxu pretended to have lost confidence in power, completely lost his fighting spirit, and indulged in wine every day.

Sure enough, after several months of hard acting, Wang Chenhao's two spy leaders, Li Guodong and Li Bing, gradually relaxed their vigilance and surveillance of Guangxu, and instead focused on monitoring Cixi's every move.

In this way, Guangxu moved from the light to the dark, and he recruited fifty banner women from all over the country, ostensibly for him to enjoy silver, but in fact Guangxu intended to train them to be killers, so as to assassinate Wang Chenhao and his Beiyang political leaders at the right time.

"Your Majesty, with the appearance of these women, even if they are trained to be charming, I am afraid that they will not be able to get close to Wang Chenhao, and the old slave thinks that the emperor should select stunning beauties from among the Han women to train them in order to have a chance."

Li Lianying looked at the dozens of banner women selected by Guangxu, all of whom were mediocre women, not to mention getting close to Wang Chenhao, it was a problem to get close to ordinary officials.

Guangxu immediately vetoed it and said: "No, Han women are unreliable now, we only have one chance, we can't take risks." Besides, I think these women are good-looking! ”

This kind of goods is still good?

Li Lianying suddenly rolled her eyes, secretly criticizing Guangxu's aesthetics that there was really something wrong. But after thinking about it, it's no wonder that Guangxu faces Queen Yulong all day long, and it is inevitable that his aesthetics will be affected, and the most beautiful concubine in the palace is just an ordinary thing if she compares it to the outside.

Li Lianying didn't dare to say that Guangxu lacked aesthetics, so she could only explain it around the corner.

"Your Majesty, judging from the old slave's understanding of Wang Chenhao, this person's aesthetic is different from most men in this dynasty, and the women who can approach him must have a surname and knowledge in addition to having a superior appearance."

Guangxu frowned and said, "What do you want to learn?" A woman is virtuous if she is not talented! ”

Li Lianying smiled: "The question is, didn't Wang Chenhao come back from abroad?" Therefore, the woman who approaches him must be knowledgeable! ”

Guangxu then stopped all the personnel in the training and asked who had studied and who was proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. But to his disappointment, these banner women only knew a few words, and they had also learned piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, but none of them were proficient.

Guangxu was suddenly displeased, and couldn't help but sigh that the banner man lost his family business if he didn't do his job, and the flag man woman was no better.

Li Lianying suddenly said: "Your Majesty, maybe someone can give it a try?" ”

Guangxu said: "When is it?" Don't sell it! Hurry up! ”

"Yes!" Li Lianying then said: "Although most of the banner women do not learn to please men with their appearance and talent, they are not without women with both talent and appearance. Ning Xiang Gege is known as the first talented woman in the clan, although her appearance is not as good as Xi Shi Diao Chan, but she also has a beautiful sign of her appearance, and she can be regarded as one in a million beauties. Moreover, the old slave privately heard that Ning Xianggege and Wang Chenhao also had some friendship, which was quite appreciated by Wang Chenhao. Especially the pair of twin beauties trained by Gege himself won Wang Chenhao's thousands of favors, so the old slave thought that if Ning Xiang Gege made a move, Wang Chenhao would be difficult to defend, and his life would definitely be gone! ”

Guangxu glanced at Li Lianying and said, "Do you think I haven't thought about it?" ”

Li Lianying hurriedly said: "The emperor naturally sees thousands of miles!" ”

Guangxu said: "You only know one but you don't know the other. The relationship between Yun Tong and Wang Chenhao is not just what it seems. The pair of twin beauties beside her are remembered by many princes and ministers, and Yun Tong regards them as dowries, and the purpose of training them is to help Yun Tong control her man in the future, and her man is not allowed to mess with flowers and grass outside. Now Yun Tong gave them to Wang Chenhao as concubines, what do you say is their relationship? ”

Li Lianying was a little puzzled and asked: "However, if Ning Xiang Gege really became Wang Chenhao's person, then why didn't Wang Chenhao marry Ning Xiang Gege?" ”

Guangxu said: "Yun Tong is a royal nobleman, how can he be a concubine for Wang Chenhao?" The Zongren Mansion can't pass that level. Wang Chenhao lobbied in front of me and the Empress Dowager many times, asking us to nod and agree to repeal the Manchu and Han non-intermarriage laws, and he was preparing for marrying Yun Tong. ”

Then, Guangxu smiled evilly: "The Queen Mother knows Wang Chenhao's thoughts, and she is thinking about marrying Yun Tong to Rong Lu's son Balon, so that Wang Chenhao will stare dryly." ”

Li Lianying was sent by the Empress Dowager to assist Guangxu, and she hadn't been to the Empress Dowager for a long time, so he didn't know about these things. Now hearing that the Queen Mother intends to marry Ning Xianggege to Baron, Li Lianying's first reaction is that this is not a thing to be happy about.

"Your Majesty, this will make Wang Chenhao anxious!"

Guangxu snorted coldly and said, "It's just to force him, otherwise he won't mess up, and we won't have a chance to do it at all." ”

Li Lianying said worriedly: "But Wang Chenhao has great power, he can use any reason to sabotage it!" ”

Guangxu smiled: "Just let him concentrate on sabotage, so that we have more time to complete our plan." ”

Li Lianying suddenly realized and said: "It turns out that this is just another plan, and the emperor is wise." ”

Guangxu suddenly stared at Li Lianying, and said sharply: "You can't eat inside and outside, right?" ”

Li Lianying was so frightened that she suddenly knelt on the ground and said, "The old slave doesn't dare!" ”

Guangxu saw that Li Lianying's appearance did not seem to be fake, so he helped her up and said, "I believe in you!" ”

Li Lianying hurriedly wiped her cold sweat and thanked Guangxu for his trust.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ Kunning Palace, Guangxu came here as usual to greet Cixi.

"How's the training?"

Cixi closed her eyes and twisted the Buddha beads, and asked Guangxu about the progress there, so Guangxu told Cixi again.

Cixi asked again, "So Li Lianying already knows your plan?" ”

Guangxu nodded and said, "Yes!" ”

Cixi suddenly stopped twisting the beads and opened her eyes.

"Li Lianying is no longer reliable!"

With a shocked expression, Guangxu looked at Cixi with a puzzled face, and asked, "But is he the one you ordered to stay with Erchen and help Erchen train assassins!" ”

Cixi said: "Li Lianying has taken a lot of benefits from Wang Chenhao over the years, and many things would not have been so smooth for Wang Chenhao if Li Lianying had not mediated it. ”

Guangxu was suddenly shocked and said nervously: "Then you still put him next to Erchen?" Now it's okay, Li Lianying's plan on Erchen's side already knows the ** of the ten, and presumably Wang Chenhao will know it soon. ”

Guangxu suddenly wilted like a frosted eggplant.

Cixi was very calm and said, "Not yet! Li Lianying knows how to protect himself, he is a slave who will not offend on either side, and he knows how to protect himself. Even if he reveals some information to Wang Chenhao, he won't say too much, otherwise Wang Chenhao's eagle dogs would have come to arrest us a long time ago. ”

Guangxu then said: "What should I do then?" Get rid of Li Lianying? ”

Cixi snorted and said, "That's not necessary! If we can use Li Lianying to pass false information to Wang Chenhao, it may be more beneficial to us. ”

Guangxu looked at Cixi in surprise again and asked, "Queen Mother, you have a plan?" ”

Cixi glanced at Guangxu and smiled: "You are still too young, you still owe it to the political struggle!" ”

Then, Cixi said: "Wang Chenhao is now the prime minister, and what he cares about is actually the emperor who stepped on his head, not me, an old woman. Therefore, no matter how we act, he can't really rest assured of you, unless you take the initiative to give him the Zen position, then he may let you live. ”

Guangxu said a little angrily: "Queen Mother, you have been calculating me? ”

Cixi said unhappily: "This is just one link in the chain plan!" ”

Guangxu asked, "Then why don't you explain it to me?" Apparently not sincerely! ”

Cixi glared at Guangxu angrily and said, "If I told you everything, didn't you tell Li Lianying all at once?" What's the difference between that and telling Wang Chenhao directly? ”

Guangxu was speechless for a moment, knowing that he was at a loss, so he said: "It's the son's carelessness!" ”

Cixi saw that Guangxu was still wrong, so she said: "The more real the play we play, the more Wang Chenhao will believe it." When Wang Chenhao diverted his attention from me and back to you, the mourning family had a chance to escape. ”

When Guangxu heard that Cixi was going to escape, he was immediately anxious and asked Cixi to take him with him.

Cixi comforted him and said, "Wang Chenhao values you, and you have no chance to run away." Besides, what can you do when you run out? Who listens to you? ”

Guangxu asked, "Then what is your plan?" ”

Cixi said: "The only chance to go out is to worship the ancestors in the spring!" Kanto is the land of our ancestors, and most of them are our people. As soon as I went out, I immediately gathered the old department, united with the Mongol princes, and confronted Wang Chenhao outside the Guan. ”

Guangxu asked, "Then what should I do?" Wang Chenhao will kill me! ”

Cixi said: "Don't worry, as long as the mourning family escapes, Wang Chenhao won't dare to do anything to you!" You just have to act according to your current plan, as long as we contain Wang Chenhao, we will win, if we can kill him, then our chances of victory are higher. ”

Guangxu said with a bitter face: "Speaking of which, you still have to sacrifice me!" ”

Cixi said sharply: "There are two paths in front of you now, one is to do what I say, so that you will have at least one chance to be a powerful emperor in the future." The other way is for you to give up now, wait for Wang Chenhao to wipe out all the forces that support you in the end, wait for him to consolidate his dominance, and then find an excuse to abolish or kill you. ”

Guangxu suddenly retorted: "He dares? ”

Cixi was so angry that she laughed back, and said helplessly: "You entered the palace at the age of four, what kind of status do people dare to do what kind of things do you still need me to teach you again?" ”

Guangxu was suddenly depressed.

Cixi asked, "Which one do you choose?" ”

Guangxu said: "I will think about it again!" ”

Cixi said with a calm face: "I don't have time for you to think about it!" ”

Guangxu thought for a while, and suddenly asked, "Will you abolish me and set up another emperor?" ”

Cixi said: "After the mourning family escapes, only another emperor can save your life!" Wang Chenhao needs to continue to support you as the emperor to deal with the mourning family! ”

Guangxu seems to have no other way, rather than waiting for death, it is better to fight.

Guangxu nodded and said, "I agreed!" Is it just that Wang Chenhao will be fooled? ”

Seeing that Guangxu nodded in agreement, Cixi immediately breathed a sigh of relief, her face softened, and said: "Wang Chenhao is very shrewd, he will not hang himself on a tree, he will find multiple channels to collect intelligence." Therefore, we also have to pass false information to Wang Chenhao through other people, and there is a saying that the three of them said that the tiger couldn't help but he didn't believe it. ”

Guangxu nodded, and discussed with Cixi again before leaving.

Before leaving, Cixi instructed Guangxu not to come to greet her again, in case Wang Chenhao would notice it.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ nightfall, the flow of people in the streets and alleys of Yanjing City quickly disappeared, shops closed, and people went home one after another to turn off the lights and go to bed.

Yanjing City, which lacks nightlife, has gradually become quieter, but except for one place, that is, the major records of Yanjing's Bada Hutong, which is only open for business at night.

In Wang Chenhao's words, the abolition of the Jiyuan will only cause more underground black houses to appear, causing more surname diseases to be prevalent in the dark, which is even more unfavorable to the unified management and supervision of the political axe. In Wang Chenhao's view, the Records Institute cannot be banned, it is better to be public, and it is more orderly to be supervised by the political axe.

The police department will conduct regular inspections of units engaged in prostitution, which is extremely beneficial to cracking down on criminal activities such as trafficking, human seduce, and illegal forced sale of silver. Prostitution workers can receive an official work card at Beiyang Political Axe, which belongs to the Public Service Department, and can go to designated hospitals for regular examinations free of charge. This can effectively prevent the spread of surname diseases and endanger healthy people.

There are dozens of Jiyuan officially opened in Yanjing's Bada Hutong, and they are very lively every night, but tonight there was a murder in a house on the bank of the river, and a girl was killed, and the Yanjing police immediately intervened in the investigation.

Soon, the Yanjing police targeted several foreigners and arrested three of them and two Russians. In the course of interrogation, the Yanjing police unexpectedly discovered that the three people themselves were under the banner of scientific research, and in fact belonged to the "Black Dragon Society" and the "Ronin Society", all of which were spy organizations. The "Black Dragon Society" was established in January 1899 as a separate stove after the "Genyosha" brand was inverted, and was established to continue the business of "Genyosha". Mitsumi Toyama handed over the important task of leading the "Black Dragon Society" to Ryohei Uchida, who was only 25 years old. The purpose of the establishment of the Black Dragon Society was to bring the three northeastern provinces under the rule of the Lord, but after the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Black Dragon Society hoped to invade the Northeast with the help of Russian forces, so the Black Dragon Society cooperated with the Tsarist spy organization.

And the Ronin Club has always been commanded by the head of the special agent Tsuneichi, and it is not easy to participate in the political axe in the name of the Ronin, and do some shady things for the political axe. In the early days of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Ronin Society became famous and made great achievements, but after the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Ronin would fall into a slump until the Ronin would be noticed again by the world after a coup d'état in North Korea killed Concubine Min.

The other two Russians, under the guise of tourism, were actually affiliated with the Russian spy organization "Platts".

The Platts espionage organization is one of the earliest espionage organizations in Tsarist Russia, with a very long history, initially engaged in espionage activities in the name of the Royal Geographical Society of Tsarist Russia, and later changed to the Platts espionage organization after it grew stronger.

Tsarist Russia began to covet the Tibetan province of China very early. Tibet Province is a strategic location overlooking the Chinese mainland, connecting Central Asia and India and the Indian Ocean. At the beginning of the 18th century, Tsar Peter I, attracted by rumors of the abundance of gold in the Tibetan provinces of China, ordered trade with the "[***] lama's territory", "not for profit, but for the purpose of sending astute men to accompany the merchants, in order to find out where gold was produced, what was produced, where it was passable, and whether it could be reached and occupied, even if the road was difficult." Driven and supported by the Russian government, soldiers, merchants, clerics, and spies continued to infiltrate western China to explore the way to and occupy Tibetan provinces.

With the fierce competition between Russia and Britain in Central Asia, Tibetan Province has become one of the important targets of contention between the two sides. Beginning in the 70s of the 19th century, the Russian political axe began to carry out planned and organized acts of aggression against Tibetan Province, and the War Department, the General Staff Headquarters, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the cooperation of the Tsarist Royal Geographical Society, dispatched officers at the rank of general and colonel to lead batch after batch of "expeditions" to Tibet Province to conduct comprehensive on-the-spot investigations under the banner of "geographical investigation" and "academic research" to collect intelligence on their further aggression against Tibetan Province. As military spies directly serving the aggressive policy of Tsarist Russia, they were provided with huge sums of money by the government and armed escorts by guards, and they were dispatched from all sides in an attempt to enter the center of Tibetan Province to spy on them.

Colonel Prizhevalsky of the Tsarist Army was the vanguard of this, and the colonial robber wrote in his application to the Russian General Staff and the Geographical Society to "investigate" the province of Tibet: "The power of the [***] lama is no less than that of the papacy in the Middle Ages, and this divine right has many followers, and when it is in the hands of experienced genius, it must be a terrible force." To appease it, to encircle it, and to make friends with it if possible, I think Russia can gain considerable benefit from it. He also once uttered a wild statement: "With only 1,000 Russian soldiers, it will be enough to conquer the whole of Asia, from Lake Baikal to the Himalayas." For more than 10 years from 1871 to 1888, with the support of the Tsarist political axe, Platts led an "expedition" to collect intelligence in China's Tibetan Province five times, and his third expedition went south to the Nagqu area in the north of Tibetan Province, only 270 kilometers away from Lhasa. Along the way, the "expedition team" drew detailed terrain and road maps, and stole a large amount of information on the politics, economy, military, ethnicity, and resources of Tibetan provinces.

Platts was promoted to at least the rank of general for his so-called "outstanding merits" for the Tsarist Russian military affairs agency. In the end, he fell ill and died on the way to the fifth "expedition". The Tsar ordered the city of Karakol (present-day Kyrgyzstan), where he was buried, to be renamed Prizhevalsk, and awarded a medal named after him, and awarded a large amount of money, even changing the Aktag Mountain in the southern part of the Chinese province to "Prizhevalsky Mountain" on the Russian map. As a result, the huge spy team he left behind with hundreds of people was changed to an espionage organization called "Platts" and continued to carry out espionage activities in China.

Interestingly, all five of them are in close contact with the personnel of the Consulate General in China and the Russian Consulate in China.

The Yanjing police found out that there was a case in the case, so they reported it to the National Police Agency. Soon the NSA and the CIA intervened in the investigation and announced that they had taken over the case.

In the face of interrogation by the Security Service and the Intelligence Service, even the hardest bones will be broken, and the hard mouths will be pried open. The National Security Bureau, presided over by Li Bing, and the CIA, presided over by Li Guodong, received more or less guidance from Wang Chenhao in many of their interrogation methods for prisoners.

In addition to the original Ten Tortures of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in order to deal with internationally trained spies, Wang Chenhao instructed them to modern and advanced interrogation methods, such as subjecting prisoners to a dark environment in isolation to make them mentally break down, depriving them of sleep for fatigue interrogation, hypnotic interrogation, and inducing interrogation under special sounds and lights.

At the same time, Wang Chenhao also invented the lie detector. Combined with modern science, several sets of question and answer papers were designed, and polygraphs were used to interrogate prisoners.

These advanced interrogation methods and interrogation equipment are integrated with the high-tech achievements of the 21 st century, which were fatal to foreign spy agencies in the 19 th century.

The Homeland Security Bureau and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have used these advanced interrogation methods to arrest thousands of spies from various countries in China, and some spies who have been lurking in China for decades have also been dug up and cannot escape justice.

After three days of systematic interrogation, the three spies and the two Russian spies confessed their crimes, and the murder of the girl was only thought to have overheard their conversation. And the secret they are hiding behind them is even more shocking, because the five of them actually have the same mission, all planning to assassinate Wang Chenhao, the prime minister of the Chinese cabinet.

They were then interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA, and seven days later were informed of the names of other members of their respective organizations.

In the eyes of Li Bing and Li Guodong, it is no longer a matter of a day or two for the Russian spy organization to assassinate Wang Chenhao alone, and no less than 100 killers have been arrested for this purpose. However, this time the spies of the two countries actually joined together, and there was only one circumstance, that is, the political axe of the two countries had reached an agreement or formed some kind of alliance on this issue, otherwise the spy members of the two countries would not have met each other.

After Li Bing and Li Guodong met, they thought that the matter was serious, so they decided to take joint action against this incident.

Subsequently, Li Bing directed the personnel of the Department of Homeland Security to start a large-scale search and arrest in China, focusing on the Gyeonggi Zhili Province area, especially the places where Wang Chenhao often visited. Li Guodong, on the other hand, used the intelligence stations in Ben and Russia to step up the collection of intelligence on the espionage organizations of the two countries.

In the following month, the Department of Homeland Security smashed seven secret bases in China of the Black Dragon Society, the Ronin Society, and Platts, and arrested 132 spies, including some intelligence station leaders.

Subsequently, through severe interrogation, Li Bing and Li Guodong learned more information. All kinds of information show that the three secret agencies of the Black Dragon Society, the Ronin Society, and Platts are all related to the personnel of the Russian Embassy in China. Since the embassy staff had diplomatic amnesty and immunity, Li Bing and Li Guodong could not arrest them and could only monitor them.

Li Bing and Li Guodong originally wanted to exert pressure on Yue Ben and Russia through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to drive away these spies. But Li Bing and Li Guodong understood that even if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put pressure on Russia and Russia, it could only force Russia and Russia to withdraw their embassy personnel from China, but soon there would be new agents to continue their espionage activities.

At present, Li Bing and Li Guodong control the list of spy members in the Russian embassy, which is convenient for surveillance, but if they change people, I am afraid it will not be easy. So after Li Bing and Li Guodong researched, they decided not to take action against them for the time being, but secretly monitored their every move.

(To be continued)