Zhao Dongyun felt that the winter at the end of the Qing Dynasty was colder than that of later generations last year, especially when it was snowing, even if he wore thick clothes, he could not stop the invasion of the cold.

After a year has passed, maybe I am used to it, maybe the temperature is indeed higher this year, or maybe it is because there is one more person in the room.

It makes him feel like this year's winter doesn't seem to be so cold!

Standing in front of the window in the early morning, wearing a loose nightgown, looking at the snowflakes that fell last night outside the yard, the cup in his hand continued to send bursts of warmth, and the only little chill left in his body was also dispelled.

"What are you looking at?" Fang Ruolian's voice came from behind her.

Looking back, I saw that she was still lying in the soft quilt, only her head was exposed, maybe because of the dazzling light outside the window, maybe because she didn't wake up, she just half-squinted at him.

Without waiting for Zhao Dongyun to answer, she saw the snow sticks hanging on the tree outside the window, and immediately showed lazy surprise: "It's snowing!" ”

It's just that even with the first snow of the year, it didn't dispel Fang Ruolian's habit of continuing to lie in bed, and once again said to Zhao Dongyun: "Breakfast in bed is the privilege of a married woman!" ”

Well, this is really weird, you can believe in Catholicism, but you are not one of those aristocratic wives in Europe, and you have nothing to do to learn other people's habits!

Fang Ruolian, in Zhao Dongyun's opinion, is completely different from other women he has seen and known in this era, which has nothing to do with her religious beliefs and family background, but her character is too fast.

At first, he just thought that she was just a nun, at most she was an extremely beautiful nun, but after she followed her to Guangzong, the nun's identity quickly disappeared, and then she became an unrestrained woman without God's constraints.

From Guangzong to Baoding, Zhao Dongyun saw in her a free and brisk girl, like a green apple in the morning with an intoxicating fragrance, and she did a lot of things she wanted to do, when she was interested in horseback riding, but dared to ignore the girl's reserve every day to ride a fierce war horse to run outside the city, when she heard Zhao Dongyun say that she wanted to get married, she thought that marriage was not bad, so she nodded without any hesitation.

However, after marriage, her whole person changed greatly, and almost overnight she changed from a cheerful girl to a lazy young woman.

She no longer rode out on horseback, no longer wandered around, and even when she saw beggars and hungry people on the road, she did not have the same pitiful look as before, she used to chant the word God, and then let the servants distribute food or copper dollars to them, but now she was able to sit in the carriage and not even look at them.

And then the biggest change is that she has become a bed-ridden!

When winter came, she didn't even want to go downstairs to eat breakfast, but stubbornly stayed in bed to eat.

After Zhao Dongyun changed his clothes, Fang Ruolian's personal maid also quietly came in, ready to serve Fang Ruolian, who was still lying on the bed, to freshen up and eat.

Zhao Dongyun himself went downstairs alone, and after arriving at the restaurant, Steward Xu stepped forward and sent the ironed newspaper over, there were several copies of this newspaper, all of which were local tabloids.

Most of the contents have nothing to do with Zhao Dongyun, so he naturally doesn't care about it, but today's newspapers say that Russia has ignored the "Treaty on the Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces" and has carried out the first phase of the withdrawal.

After seeing this news, Zhao Dongyun frowned, it seems that the situation in the Northeast is becoming more and more tense day by day!

During the Gengzi Incident, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army marched into China, most of which attracted attention to the war near Zhili, but for Russia, the Northeast is the focus, before and after the Gengzi Incident, the Russian army has entered the Northeast more than 100,000 troops, and has the intention of directly occupying the Northeast to establish Yellow Russia.

In 1901, China and the great powers signed the Xinchou Treaty, after the signing of the treaty, all countries withdrew their troops one after another, but the Russian army did not leave, which not only caused strong opposition in China, but also caused strong opposition in China, when Zhao Dongyun and Cao Kun, Wang Zhanyuan and others held a banquet last winter, Cao Kun, Wang Zhanyuan and others shouted that if the Russians did not withdraw their troops, they would train the troops to recover the northeast and so on.

However, with China's own weak strength in this era, it is useless to oppose it, and it is Britain, Japan, and the United States that really cause further changes in the situation in Northeast China.

Russia's ambitions for the territory of Northeast China undoubtedly aroused strong opposition from the British, Japan, and other powers, not because they wanted to help China resist Russia, but because Russia's Far East expansion strategy greatly threatened the interests of Britain and Japan in Northeast China and Korea, and directly led to the signing of an alliance treaty between Britain and Japan in January 1902.

The signing of the Anglo-Japanese alliance treaty, coupled with the diplomatic pressure of the United States, forced Russia to sign the "Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces" with China. The Russian army withdrew from China in three phases within 18 months, with a period of six months; Before the withdrawal of the Russian army, China is not allowed to train new troops in the three northeastern provinces, and the number of Chinese troops in the northeast must also be informed to Russia at any time after the withdrawal of the Russian army; After the Russian army returned the railways along Shanhaiguan, Yingkou and Xinmin Hall, the Qing government compensated.

Among the above, the most important one is that the Russian army must withdraw on schedule, but in the first six months after the signing of the treaty, the Russian army also withdrew in accordance with the treaty, but after October 1902, the Russian army suspended the second phase of the withdrawal, and now two months have passed, and the Russian army still has no movement to withdraw the army, which makes the domestic discussion a lot, for fear that the Russian army will not break the contract.

In fact, it is not only China that is extremely nervous, but also Japan's own nervousness!

Because of Japan's ambitions for China and Korea, they could not allow the Russian army to occupy the northeast, so after the Russian army refused to implement the treaty on the surrender of the three eastern provinces, the Japanese government was more nervous and anxious than the Qing government, and there was a great posture that the emperor was not anxious and the eunuchs were in a hurry.

Maybe for a group of Manchu nobles in the Qing court, China's territory is very large, and it is nothing to lose a few million square kilometers, and what about the land of Longxing in the northeast, if you say you don't want it, you don't want it, and you don't feel heartache at all. To put it mildly, the capital has been breached twice in just a few decades, the royal gardens have been burned several times, and countless treasures have been robbed.

However, for Japan, the Northeast is an important way for them to enter the Asian continent, and when they have obtained the bridgehead of Korea, almost every day they want to cross the Yalu River and occupy the Northeast, as long as they can control the Northeast in their hands, it will not be difficult to destroy China in the next three months.

Therefore, the occupation of the Northeast by the Russian army was not a matter at all for the Manchu Qing court at that time, anyway, the Northeast is still hundreds of kilometers away from Beijing, even if they come to Beijing, they can also run to Xi'an, well, they call it "West Hunting", which literally means to go to the west to hunt auspicious, it cannot be said to be an escape!

However, the emperor is not in a hurry, the eunuch is in a hurry, you don't want the Northeast like a loser in the Qing court, but I can't do without the Northeast, and then according to the historical trend, the most bizarre war broke out in the history of the world in 1904.

Japan and Russia are at war for the northeast of China, but China has also declared neutrality, putting on a posture that the northeast is in our hands, and whoever wants to go will take it!

I have to say that the Manchu regime was a very strange regime, first making ugly money rat tails, and then these barbarians still guarded the idea of fishing and hunting, throwing away muskets and cannons and picking up knives and bows, and when it came to the Opium War, they were stupid.

Of course, these are nothing, at most they are a little national characteristics! There are more examples with more national characteristics than this, such as Gengzi Nian Cixi actually declared war on all the world's powers, which is more domineering than the modern North Korea's declaration of war on the world, and people who don't know still think that there is a group of aliens standing behind her to support her.

The result was that Cixi, the old lady, took the little hand of Guangxu's classmate and went to Xi'an to hunt birds.

But to be honest, none of the above is nothing, after all, the Manchu regime has not been dealt with back and forth, and it is fortunate that it continues to exist, and the most guilty thing is that it still plays the New Deal reform, and was finally eliminated by the new generation of elites cultivated by itself.

This is a classic example of not dying without dying.

Therefore, the reason why the Manchu regime will fall is not because of any nationality, class or other mess, because it is stupid......

It's far away, let's get down to business. The situation in the northeast in 1902 became tense because of the delay in the second phase of the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Japan's war, which set off an atmosphere of arms expansion last year, has once again stirred up nerves and quickened the pace of arms expansion by a great margin. Yuan Shikai had no way to continue to purchase cheap artillery from Japan, so he could only import them to Europe at a high price.

After all, even if there is a Fuyuan machine factory that can provide rifles, but the expansion of the army requires not only rifles, but also artillery!

On the other hand, the continued tension in the Northeast is also an opportunity for Yuan Shikai to expand the army, only when the situation in the Northeast is tense, Yuan Shikai can say that the troops under his command are not enough, and the army must be expanded again, and no one dares to say anything if he embezzles funds from other aspects in the process of army expansion or even directly dismisses those old armies to embezzle the old army's military funds.

And the expansion of the army has many benefits for the entire Beiyang system, not to mention anything else, but Zhao Dongyun himself is promoted and promoted!

Therefore, from Zhao Dongyun's personal point of view, in fact, the refusal of the Russian army to withdraw from the Northeast and stir up the situation in the Northeast to become more and more tense is greatly advantageous!

Just like in later generations, after the Japanese army launched the July 7 Incident to invade China, some people in China spilled their blood and raised guns to fight to the death, some people left to avoid war for their own survival, and some people shouted that there was a God-given opportunity to inspire and celebrate.

Whether one thing is good or bad, different people are different from different perspectives.