Chapter 66 The Prime Minister's Residence

Nanjing Central Government District, built on the former full city, to be precise is the Ming Empire period of the Imperial Palace Forbidden Garden, in the central government district, a Chinese-style, Western-style buildings, scattered in the scenic park nearby, on both sides of the boulevard, in the city wall of the old city, really accept the modern urban planning is only almost completely rebuilt on the ruins of the central administrative district, and because of this, the central government district in addition to the central agency is located, is also a lot of dignitaries and dignitaries of the residence. ＂＂

Behind the Imperial Parliament, there was a stylized mansion, and most of the time, anyone who approached it would be severely reprimanded by the guards. One can only see in the distance that the walls of the official residence are covered with pine, cypress and maple trees, which is the official residence of the Imperial Prime Minister.

One night at the end of February of the 11th year of the Empire, the official residence of the Prime Minister.

Inside the residence, the lampshade was covered with a blackout umbrella, and the dim light shone on the faint aristocratic luxury furniture. The guests in the house could not see a famous painting of Chen Shizeng hanging on the wall, "Imperial Capital Customs Painting", this painter who worked in the Imperial University Painting Research Association, is not famous for figure painting, the reason why he became famous is not from the skillful skills of his figure painting works, but because he introduced the daily life of ordinary people into Chinese painting for the first time, and because of this, his paintings will be respected by His Majesty, and there are more than ten of his paintings in the imperial palace, and it is normal to see his paintings in the Prime Minister's official residence.

"Guan Gong,"

Lu Kai, who was holding the teacup, opened his mouth.

"Now that we have declared war on Najd, the British have protested against us, and now that all countries are wary of our expansion, we must act, and if we continue to expand our ambitions, the consequences will be unimaginable, and it is too late to do so."

The person known as "Guan Gong" is Guan Mingtang, who has twice served as the Prime Minister of the Empire.

After the death of Jang Zhidong, he had temporarily served as prime minister, and later it was he who recommended the governor of North Korea, Yuan Shikai, as the imperial prime minister, the prime minister who had studied in the United States for many years, was an alternative existence in Chinese political circles, on the one hand, he supported enlightened autocracy, on the other hand, he supported constitutionalism, but in any case, anyone understands one thing, His Majesty has 100% trust in him.

Guan Mingtang, who is 53 years old this year, shows full of energy. He is nearly 1.8 meters tall and wears a regular Hanfu. Although he received a traditional Chinese education when he was young, the greatest influence on him was the United States, most of the time, he wore a suit, but his interests were American: baseball, golf, equestrian, it can be said that many years of living experience in the United States made his interests and hobbies seriously influenced by Americans.

Over the years, however, his political life has changed a lot, such as wearing Hanfu in informal settings and collecting ancient Chinese books. He has a high discernment in this regard.

Although he became Prime Minister, he had less and less time for himself, rarely went to the horse farms outside the city to ride horses, and rarely played golf, but the physique accumulated over many years of exercise and sports was not comparable to that of ordinary officials, and in the words of others, even many officers were not as healthy as him.

"Child,"

Drinking tea, the heat in the house made Guan Mingtang somewhat uncomfortable, as far as his original intention was concerned, he hoped that winter would be winter, and not like now, the heating made people feel hot at the same time, and even made people drowsy, in fact, before moving into the official residence, his own residence, never needed heating in winter, but the prime minister's residence, but he was not alone, there were more than 100 staff and staff, he must respect their right to choose, in this case, he can only sacrifice the "sobriety" he desires, In fact, he believes that the bitter cold of winter can make people more awake, which is what he experienced when he studied abroad in the United States. …,

"What do you think?"

Lu was an important minister of the imperial court. The foreign minister had played an important role in Yuan Shikai's cabinet.

China's political system is as complex as the political reality, and it is the opposite of the light and elegant Chinese paintings, with all kinds of smudges, mixed colors, blood, copper stench, feudal and modern deformities. With each change in the political, economic, and especially military situation, its kaleidoscope changes its angle, and the stained glass in the mirror rearranges and combines to present new shapes. At first glance, outsiders are confused, cloudy and foggy, and they don't know the essentials.

On the one hand, the strength of His Majesty, the important ministers, the noble court, and the monopoly capital, they want to expand, hoping to alleviate domestic contradictions through external expansion. On the other hand, the members of the National Assembly and the political parties are weak and powerless, calm down and protect themselves, and are helpless, they are sluggish, decadent, and decadent, and full of all kinds of shortcomings and weaknesses, but they also want the country to expand to the outside world and prove to the people that the country is strong.

As for the army and navy, which are the main force of expansion, although the army does not agree with declaring war on Germany, they do not mind expanding their influence through war to achieve the goal of increasing military spending, and as for the navy, their goal is much simpler, they use Germany as an "imaginary enemy" under the banner of war, so they have obtained a huge amount of military spending, in short, the army and navy are eager for war.

The enlightened autocracy in China for many years seems to have reached a turning point, and the political forces of various factions in the country were ready to move again from the early days of the war, although they were quickly pacified later, but Guan Mingtang knew that this was only a temporary suppression. Now the focus of their eyes is on him and the cabinet he leads, and the success of the last cabinet collapse has made those people realize that they are fully capable of carrying out a new kind of "constitutional protection movement" through another way, and the goal of protecting the constitution is to overthrow the cabinet.

"We must maintain a limited military expansion in Arabia and ease the contradictions with Britain,"

Looking at the prime minister in front of him, Lu asked tentatively.

"If you can, you can officially give up ......"

Before he finished speaking, Guan Mingtang shook his head,

"There are some things that are impossible to give up, if we give up Hong Kong now, then within a month, the cabinet will fall, and His Majesty will definitely not support the diplomatic abandonment of Hong Kong, you must know ......"

Putting down the teacup and looking at Lu, Guan Mingtang knew that in the past period of time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been negotiating with Britain and France on the leased land, although some progress had been made, but in general, the progress was very limited.

His Majesty once said, "Although China is big, not an inch is superfluous!" "Every inch of land must be fought for, not an inch of land will be caught, this is the most basic land policy of a normal country, in the sixth year of the empire, we had a conflict with Russia because of the belonging of the 64 tuns in Jiangdong, for that place, His Majesty even did not hesitate to transfer 100 of the country's 100 and 6 divisions to Xinjiang, Mongolia, and the Northeast, and even carried out mobilization in the country, at that time you had not yet entered the cabinet, there are some things you don't know!"

Looking at Lu in front of him, Guan Mingtang sighed secretly in his heart, fortunately there were only two of them today, otherwise...... Thinking of this, he reminded him of the old routines of the past.

"At that time, according to His Majesty's thoughts, if the Russians did not return, they would fight a battle with them, a fierce battle!"

Lu couldn't help but be stunned, in the sixth year of the empire, when the "Jiangdong 64tun incident", he was serving as ambassador to France, at that time, all European countries thought that it was impossible for China and Russia to go to war, and he also received instructions from the country, let him lobby the French government, to win the support of the French government, and the final result was very simple, under the mediation of France and the United States, China had to take back the Jiangdong 64 tun. …,

But he didn't expect that the domestic policy at that time turned out to be war!

"Not only to fight a fierce war, but also to prepare to recover all the lost territory, about the territorial scope, Your Majesty has said a sentence, but wherever China has been to the place, China enjoys sovereignty, in other words, in the next few decades, it is estimated that we will have to fight a war with the Russians, the British, and the French sooner or later, according to the Tang Dynasty, to the west, our national border has been to the Caspian Sea, north to Siberia, today's Persia, Afghanistan is more Tang Dynasty Anxi Protectorate, so, estimated, we have to do a good job of using two generations, Mental preparation for a big battle! ”

The Prime Minister's words only surprised Lu Quanren, he knew that Guan Mingtang's words would never be false, otherwise, with His Majesty's temper, he would not have instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate with Britain and France, it can be leisurely, it doesn't matter whether an agreement is reached or not, the important thing is not to let them grasp the handle, in other words, Your Majesty did not have much hope for negotiations at all, to be precise, Your Majesty's heart is probably ready to declare war on these European powers at a certain right time, after China is strong enough, so as to restore the "country of the Han and Tang Dynasties" in his mind.

As a diplomat, he clearly knew that once China made that choice, it would mean that China would have to be the enemy of the whole world for a certain period of time in the future, just like Germany now.

What awaits China then?

Be...... For a moment, he didn't even dare to think about it anymore, he didn't know if there would be a day when this crazy chariot would stop once it was started, and if he could, he only hoped that this chariot would never start.

"Well, it's just an assumption, Your Majesty, and sometimes it's naïve!"

Guan Mingtang smiled and told a joke, and then he personally poured a cup of tea for Lu.

"Ziji, as for the one you said about making some concessions to ease the wariness of various countries against China, then, why are they wary of China?"

*J