The alley in Hankou Baoshun is not long, the west end is connected with the British Concession, and the east end is the downtown area, because the terrain is good, a small alley is very magnificent. The granite-paved road is cleaned all year round, and most of the houses on both sides are luxurious and tall, and from behind the high walls and iron gates, there are often a few foreign smells: foreign songs, foreign perfumes, and a few oily and slippery foreign dogs. There are indeed many foreigners living here, most of them British, but also French and Americans.

There are six houses in a row from No. 3 to No. 8, which is the property purchased by several businessmen from Shanghai a few years ago. Two of the six houses are inhabited by foreigners, and four are still empty.

After the meal, Zhao Juexian and Li Tielan looked at the "Dahan Daily" that was being printed in the room, took out one of them, and looked at the report on it "Hu Governor's Order: Hu Province does not pay the guest army", this is a rumor!

In fact, in the past 20 days, the source of rumors in Hubei is here, but the rumors are justified and supported by all kinds of evidence.

To a certain extent, rumors have become a kind of advantageous weapon, through intentional or unintentional creation, under the stimulation of all kinds of true and false news, the whole country is panicked, and after obtaining the cipher code of the Qing political axe in various places, that is, in the name of the local governor and governor, he sent a telegram to the outside world, saying that the rebels are very strong, and in addition, they also intentionally or unintentionally spread among the people that a certain province has fallen and that a certain army is in the same party, and so on, which pushes the use of rumors to the top.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty, who had never been able to understand the actual situation in the southern provinces and could not grasp the initiative of public opinion, was not only powerless to deal with these rumors, but even believed them to be true.

"It's time for the military pay!"

Shaking off the newspaper in his hand, Zhao Xianjue smiled.

"The market must be bought and sold in cash."

Li Tielan said with a smile, the effect of rumors makes people panic, in the past 20 days, there is a shortage of cash in the market, and now nearly 100,000 troops are gathered in Hubei, and a month's military salary needs hundreds of thousands of taels, this military salary ...... "no silver, only afraid of ......"

Thinking of Zhang Zhidong's impending predicament, Zhao Xianjue, who came from Lianghu Academy, inevitably became worried about his mountain chief.

"When the time comes, you can tempt the mountain chief and make the mountain chief lose his way!"

Compared with Zhao Xianjue's worries, Li Tielan felt that this was for the sake of the mountain chief.

"If the mountain chief can get lost and know the opposite, won't he become a name in front of him and behind him!"

"I hope so!"

Zhao Xianjue said softly, although he was looking forward to it in his heart, he understood that even if the world was recovered, he would still be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty.

Sitting in the hall of the Huguang Governor's Palace, Zhang Zhidong thought quietly. It is said that the three towns of Wuhan are one of the three major furnaces in the Yangtze River Basin, which is really worthy of its name. It's just summer, and the weather is just over the summer, and the weather is very hot.

Zhang Zhidong, whose sweat kept gushing out like a fountain, took it and wiped his hands and face after the servant brought a towel soaked in deep well water with a tray, and suddenly felt much cooler, and closed his eyes slightly and thought about it.

The first thing he did when he took office was to build an iron factory. Since Daoguang and Xianfeng, foreigners have repeatedly violated and bullied China, relying on the strength of ships and guns. If China wants to avoid being bullied, it must have advanced weapons, which requires the construction of iron works. Hubei has coal and iron mines, which can realize this ideal. But this is a big project, site selection, fundraising, recruitment, design, construction...... After a lot of hard work, I finally ...... Sheng Xuanhuai, who wanted to bring Hanyang Iron Works back to life, had to admit that Sheng Xuanhuai was more capable than him. However, as the founder of Hanyang Iron Works and Daye Iron Mine, thinking about the attitude of the world when mentioning Hanyang Iron Works, Zhang Zhidong will always feel a sense of grievance. This sense of grievance was painful and disheartening.

But all this, he had already thought about it, and at this time, when he looked at the newspaper on the table, he frowned from time to time.

Chen Dashuai advocated that Zhang Zhidong should be awarded a grand medal.

As soon as he saw this content, Zhang Zhidong hurriedly looked at the text:

Yesterday, Chen Dashuai summoned the gentry and virtuous men of Liangjiang at the Grand Marshal's Mansion, and said with a smile at the meeting: Hudu Zhang Zhidong should be minted with a grand medal of 100 tons of gold to reward him for his major contributions to the liberation: first, Zhang used official funds to send Huguang to stay in Huguang, most of which became the backbone of the Guangfu nation, and second, the Hanyang Iron Works and the Hanyang Gun Factory founded by Zhang, he said that he would equip the Guangfu Army with sufficient weapons, and he said that Hubei Guangfu would take over his Hanyang-made Han-style guns to expel the Tatars and restore China.

When he saw this in the newspaper in the morning, Zhang Zhidong only felt that the sky was spinning, how could he, who was familiar with the inside story of officialdom, not know that Chen Moran laughed and talked again.

Thinking about it, Zhang Zhidong closed his eyes, and at this time he was still thinking about what he would face after Chen Moran's words.

In his heart, he didn't hate that Chen Moran ignored the past caress feelings, and carried out this killing move, one official and one thief, and he didn't stand up for each other to make his own killing moves.

"My lord, this is a big Han newspaper!"

Dagen, who was bowing down, handed over a newspaper on the side, just took the newspaper and looked at it, Zhang Zhidong was dizzy, and fell on the soft recliner, drowsy, and his mind was full of the words of the newspaper.

"Lake Governor's Order: Lake Province does not pay the guest army!"

Chen Moran! Chen Cripple! It's really a poisonous mind! Staring at the newspaper and thinking about the first time he hated the smiling Chen lame man Zhang Zhidong who came back to his senses for a while suddenly said to Dagen who was waiting on the side, this servant who had been following him from Nanpi.

"You go and inform the Makutomo room that you will meet at the Crane Dance Pavilion in an hour, and you have something important to discuss."

The front and back gates of the East Garden of the Governor's Office were guarded by guards, and no idle people were allowed to enter. At the end of May in the foreign calendar, Wuchang City was already full of heat, but the surrounding trees of Hewuxuan were not too hot.

Liang Dingfen, Gu Hongming, Xu Jianyin, Chen Niantou, Liang Dunyan, Chen Yan and others listened to Zhang Zhidong's words with solemn faces.

"Hu Governor's Order: Hu Province does not have the salary of the guest army, this is a rumor, you all know, now the Hubei Treasury is only more than two million taels of silver, 100,000 troops are gathered in Hubei, and the monthly salary of only one item of silver is as high as nearly 600,000 taels, and then the ammunition replenishment, wounded treatment will be borne by Hubei Province, Sichuan has not yet arrived, although this month can be paid, but the treasury will be empty after the salary, he said that once the military prisoners are recovered, they can use the silver of the soldiers, and the contemptible people are facing the difficult situation of advancing and retreating. Do you gentlemen have any good ideas to help me out of this predicament? ”

After listening to Zhang Zhidong's words, everyone looked at each other, and their minds were nervously thinking about good strategies. It's not easy to come up with a good idea.

Gu Hongming, who has always been open-mouthed, opened his mouth first.

"My lord, I think the money in this treasury should be sent out first, or even before the end of the month, not only to pay the actual salary, but also to pay the army again. In my opinion, Chen Cripple is now saying that he is sacrificing to Hongwuling, and he swears not to say the Northern Expedition, but in fact, he is now said to be the power of the rebel army, but he is a strong foreign force in the middle, and there is absolutely no power of the Northern Expedition to the west. ”

The Governor made it clear that he could not be paid, and this Gu Tongsheng was going to contradict him, what did he want? All the friends looked at him in amazement. Zhang Zhidong's eyes were also a little puzzled.

"My lord, if you don't pay you, I'm afraid that the rumors will come true, and when the guest armies in the provinces rebel, I'm afraid that the situation will collapse in an instant. Now that the treasury has settled the hearts of the army, he said that as soon as the relief of the provinces arrives, he can solve the difficulties of the lake province! Please also have a good understanding! ”

These words caused a shock in Xuan, and Gu Hongming was very proud. Half of his purpose in speaking is to arouse the amazement of his listeners; If the listener doesn't react in particular, he will be disappointed and bored.

After pondering for a while, Liang Dingfen spoke.

"Tang Sheng was surprised, and what Xiang Shuai was worried about was that if the Hubei Treasury was cleared, he said that the provinces would not be able to solve the salary, and then he would be able to use Xiang Shuai's ability, and it would be difficult to save the army's heart."

The words were slightly deep, and Liang Dingfen added.

"Today's report, there is an unstable wind in all places, Sichuan and Shaanxi are no exceptions, if all provinces are in chaos, how can there be a move to help! I'm afraid that at that time, I still have to rely on myself. ”

Liang Dunyan frowned and thought for a while.

"Jie'an's worries are also reasonable, but if you don't pay your salary, the rumors will be believed by the military leader, and the army will be in turmoil, and it will be rebellious!"

The various obsessions of the public curtain have been seen, which only makes the sorrow between Zhang Zhidong's eyebrows stronger, not pay, not pay.

When everyone was talking, Chen Yan didn't open his mouth, Zhang Zhidong looked at him and said.

"Mr. Shi Yi, tell me what you think."

Glancing at the adults, Chen Yan touched a few sparse beards on his chin, and slowly spoke the official dialect of the Fujian accent.

"Xiang Shuai, the salary is the same, the salary is also the same, it is all the chaos he said, everyone only said that he was in chaos, and the salary deduction is now chaos, but I don't know that the world has already been in chaos! How can military rebellion be avoided! ”

A sentence that was not said was knocked on everyone's hearts, only making everyone think about it.

"In fact, the world has already been in chaos! How can military rebellion be avoided! ”

Chen Yan's two sentences attracted the attention of all the friends present, and they all said in their hearts: Why didn't you think of this?

The world is in chaos, that is, the payment of wages is only a temporary delay.

"Xiang Shuai, we all said that "the benefits of the rumors of the traitor are far greater than the arms", but we have never thought about it, why let the rumors of the traitor be believed by the people! ”

Zhang Zhidong looked at this thin and short Fujianese, and he knew that as soon as Chen Yan opened his mouth, he would never stop if he didn't say why.

"The belief of the government is the letter of the gentry, but now most of the business gentry and virtuous people in various places have been disappointed in the imperial court, and then turned into despair, not to mention that when Chen Moran knew the national righteousness, he also promised to discuss state affairs with the sages, and his initial decision was Jiangning, that is, to invite the business gentry of the provinces and the virtuous to the business administration of Jiangning, although it was a business administration, but the business gentry of the provinces saw the opportunity of his consultation, such measures to buy hearts, how could the imperial court do, not to mention ......"

Chen Yan seemed to smile helplessly.

"Although we are appointed officials, the court palace has used the defense of the Manchu and Han Dynasty to prevent us from being involved, and this matter has long been a secret!"

Just when Zhang Zhidong wanted to open a product to reprimand Chen Yan, "My lord, Hankou emergency telegram." ”

At this time, Zhao Maochang hurriedly broke in and handed over an urgent telegram that he had just received. Zhang Zhidong hurriedly opened it to see, and all the friends in the Crane Dance Pavilion also looked nervously at the governor's thin and stern long horse face.

The telegram suddenly slipped from Zhang Zhidong's hand, his eyes became hollow, and he just stared blankly at the outside of Crane Dance Xuan.

Picking up the telegram from the ground, Chen Yan's face changed.

Admiral Sa and Ye sent out a signal light, "I'll go!" In the future, the military will wait for ships to do their own thing. ””

Although it was just a simple sentence, Chen Yan read some meanings from it, whether it was Ye Zuqi or Sa Zhenbing, who didn't want to be a sinner in the Qing court, and didn't want to be a historical sinner who was scolded by future generations, so the two chose a middle path and chose to leave the water division.

At this time, the two admirals of the naval division left the ship and went to their subordinates to imply their acquiescence to the uprising, thus relieving the concerns of the officers and men of the ships, and it was only a matter of time before the naval division rebelled.

For a while, everyone looked at each other.

After a while, Zhang Zhidong, who came back to his senses, sighed.

"The sailor misunderstood me!"

Everyone was stunned, but they just hung their heads and did not speak, at this time everyone's hearts were worried, the sailor is only going to be rebellious today and tomorrow, with the benefit of the sailor's naval artillery...... Zhang Zhidong, who came back to his senses, looked around at the friends in the Crane Dance Pavilion, but opened his mouth to speak.

"I miss a friend the most at the moment, and I want to see him, but I don't know where he is right now. Can any of you guess who he is?"

I don't know why he said this, and everyone can't guess who the person Zhang Zhidong misses the most at this moment is. Only Sang Zhiping knows it.

"Xiang Shuai, isn't it Wu Qiuyi?"

"Exactly."

Zhang Zhidong nodded and said with relief.

"It's still Zhongzi who knows my heart. Autumn clothes have been floating for a lifetime, and he has been free and easy for a lifetime, he can live as much as he wants, compared to me, it is more than a hundred times stronger! ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, sit down!"

Zhang Zhidong pointed to the chair in the Xuan, there was no trace of gleam in his empty eyes, and there was no smile on his pale face.

After all the friends sat down, Zhang Zhitong closed his eyes, and after a while, he opened his eyes again, looking at the people in front of him who were named friends of the scene, and thousands of words came to his heart, but he didn't know where to start. He couldn't say anything. Just a long sigh:

"The fortune of the country is over."

After that, Zhang Zhidong closed his eyes again, and his face was withered and dark. Everyone was stunned, and it was really shocking to hear this sentence from Xiang Shuai's mouth.

"The fortune of the country is over!"

Xiang Shuai's words only made Gu Hongming feel shocked, the Xiang Shuai in front of him is indeed very different from the Xiang Shuai a month ago, is this Qing Kingdom really exhausted?

Zhang Renquan, who had been standing behind his father, saw his father's appearance, and a trace of fear welled up in his heart. He was mentally comforted.

"Dad, now the provinces are just floating in people's hearts, the long-haired rebellion back then, several forced the Beijing Division, but in the end it was not suppressed, when, with the general ability of Dad, he can suppress the thieves!"

His son's words made Zhang Zhidong shake his head, and he opened his eyes and said to his son.

"Today is not as good as in the past, he said that he sent bandits to destroy the Confucian Temple, burned holy books, the business gentry were shameless and in the company of the cult, Gengzi was in trouble, the court trusted the cult, and then exhausted the national strength of China, and even more destroyed in the letter of the court and the gentry, Chen Moran raised troops suddenly, but it was planned for a long time,...... Pity! ”

Closing his eyes again, Zhang Zhidong's face showed some bitterness.

"The great river goes east, and the waves sweep away the romantic characters through the ages. Su Dongpo's sigh made all the heroes in the world disheartened. Chen Moran is only thirty years old, and when he is in his prime, how can I, an old man, resist it! ”

Opening his eyes, Zhang Zhidong looked at Sang Zhiping and others.

"The fortunes of the country are coming to an end."

Sang Zhiping sighed calmly and looked at Zhang Zhidong in front of him.

"I don't know what Xiang Shuai decisive!."

Zhang Zhidong stared at Sang Zhiping, as if looking at a stranger, and carefully looked at it from top to bottom. Finally, he let out a long sigh, stood up, and bowed.

"Friends, from the curtain is a few years, a long is decades, although you are called the curtain of the cave, but you are the best friend of the hole, the original or can get a background for you, but it's a pity that ......"

"Xiang Shuai!"

Everyone listened to Zhang Zhidong's words, and hurriedly got up and bowed, although it was said that entering the curtain was a master, but at this time, ...... "maybe...... The old man was wrong all the way, and he missed the good times of all the friends, and Xiangtao was really ashamed! ”

Looking at the friends in front of him, Zhang Zhidong's eyes were full of regret, and it took a long time before he smuttered.

"Xiang Tao and Chen Ranzhi have a little bit of Sihui, if you are willing, Xiang Tao will send a letter to Chen Ranzhi and recommend you to enter the Shogunate's Mansion!"

When he said this, the despair in Zhang Zhidong's heart was not what others could have predicted, the water master was rebellious, Wuchang would not be defended, and if Wuchang was lost, the land of Hubei would fall into rebellion, these friends had been with him for decades, and it was time to find a future for them.

"Xiang Shuai!"

Everyone hurriedly knelt down and bowed, but no one said anything, and they could hear that these words might be Xiang Shuai's last words. For the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong was completely disappointed with the rebellion of the water master who followed the station, he closed his eyes slightly, and ignored the friends of the scene.

At this time, Xiang Shuai's words and expression only made Sang Zhiping's heart more and more heavy. He raised his head and suddenly found that on the wall behind Zhang Zhidong, the "Gubeikou Great Wall Map" was hanging high.

This famous painting carefully conceived and painted by Sang Zhiping, since Guangxu walked out of Gubeikou in the seventh year, has been following Zhang Zhidong from Taiyuan to Guangzhou, from Guangzhou to Wuchang. Over the past 25 years, it has withstood the erosion of time and years, but it is still intact and as new in color. The Great Wall on the picture is still so winding and straight, and the towers are still so tall and majestic.

However, the most regrettable thing is that the first-time Xinjiang officials who made a grand oath to Gubeikou back then were so disheartened after working hard for 25 years for their life goals.

"Dashuai,"

Just as Sang Zhiping was about to say something, Zhang Zhidong was on the move.

"All my life's work has been in vain!"

After that, Zhang Zhidong walked towards the inner hall tremblingly, and the hearts of the staff members in the Crane Dance Pavilion were all like pressing a heavy stone slab, and they couldn't tell for a while, whether this was the angry words of a person who was enthusiastic about his work after being disappointed, or a wise old man's cold thoughts on life in troubled times?

(To be continued)