Hirobumi Ito died, An Chonggen was arrested, but Li Hongzhang was sick.

The Sino-Japanese peace talks suddenly became a laughing stock. The Japanese, who were not very happy in the first place, shouted hysterically that they would fight to the end, and would not wash away this shame and vow not to give up.

Hundreds of Goryeo scholars ran to the Forbidden City to knock on the Forbidden City and ask for help, demanding that the Qing court stop the peace talks, send a large army to continue to kill Japan, and vow not to give up until the enemy within the borders is cleaned up. If the Qing court insisted on going its own way and had to sell the interests of Goryeo in exchange for ending the war, they would rather die there than accept such humiliation!

Emperor Guangxu was caught off guard, and screamed angrily in the palace, I don't know how many people he scolded the ministers who were close to him for "waste, rice buckets", and finally had to order someone to come forward to comfort the group of sticks with kind words.

There's no way, he has to ask for the dignity of the Heavenly Empire. China has been mixed for thousands of years, and today there is only one vassal state left, and the Qing Dynasty is the only one. If Emperor Guangxu wants to revive the Qing Dynasty, he must not allow such a stain to appear in the history books. No one can say anything if they do it secretly, but it will be exposed, and it will not be very appropriate to continue to do it.

However, if you want to deal with Yang Hao, you must clear the obstacles and cut off future troubles. Lie stressed that the suspension of that was also conditional, and that the war with Japan must be suspended before the imperial court could be supported to quell the rebellion and resolve internal contradictions. This meant that they had to open their mouths in the face of the crushing defeat of the Japanese.

Allowing Goryeo to become independent is the basic condition, and the Japanese still arrogantly demand that Bay Island be ceded, otherwise they would rather break up in two - is this a rogue?

A bay island isolated from overseas. The Qing court really didn't see it. But they're afraid of losing their reputation. No one can afford the crime of losing power and humiliating the country, right?

The wise and martial emperor naturally refuses to bear this black cauldron, and the high-ranking officials must not be scapegoats. As a result, all the affairs were pressed on the head of Prime Minister Li Hongzhang.

Li Hongzhang won't suffer that dumb loss. Now that the situation is clear, why should he go to the pole and bear the infamy of the ages? His own sons and daughters were all abducted and deceived by Yang Hao, and an old man was left to be a loyal minister and filial son to the Qing Dynasty? You can't do that!

Shiyi has changed in time, and it has been seen that the Qing Dynasty will definitely die, and maybe he will be able to see it when he is still alive. At that time, he couldn't accept the scolding of turning over old accounts and being a traitor.

So Li Hongzhang simply pretended to be sick. The old man is old, and he can't do this. If you want to negotiate, let's change people.

Qingliu is not stupid. They will not get their hands dirty with this kind of ungood thing, and immediately rely on their "advantage" of not being familiar with diplomatic business, and urge Li Hongzhang to come out and stand up to the thunder. Emperor Guangxu's edict, that is almost three times a day. After a few moments, the Empress Dowager Cixi's edict also came down, so that Li Hongzhang hurriedly finished talking and pulled down, don't delay the old woman's birthday.

If there is no Yang Hao. Li Hongzhang could only pinch his nose and admit it. But now, he is the king of the eight eating scales. The hard-hearted refuses to be the rafters. He ordered Liu Buyun to drive the remaining ships of the Beiyang Fleet to Rizhao and Qingdao Shipyard for upgrading and maintenance, and then decisively pretended to be dead with a blindfold on his head.

The people's hearts are scattered, and the team is not easy to lead.

If the Manchus had heard of this sentence, they would have sighed in agreement.

No matter how they shouted and didn't move Li Hongzhang, they realized that things were a little not good. wanted to find someone to come out and be the boss of the wrongs, and found that none of Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi and others, who were the happiest before, rushed up to be the pick-up man. Who is so stupid, he understands that he will be a traitor after the talks, and Ge Laozi will not serve him.

Li Hongzao's gang is clear, and he is usually extremely loyal and patriotic, and he can't wait to smear his liver and brain for the emperor. But when it came time to get serious, they pushed two or six five one by one, and absolutely refused to take over this mess.

Emperor Guangxu is young, but he is not stupid, he finally understands that Qingliu is such a group of bastards! The light will stand on the shore to make a move, and the work of going into the water will never be done. The credit is due to their proper command, and they immediately shirk the responsibility to others after poking the basket...... What a thing!

There is more one, Qingliu's face is thick-skinned, no matter how you scold, people are as stable as Mount Tai and immovable. In their technical terms, this is the work of the mind.

All of a sudden, the overall situation of the Sino-Japanese joint war showed signs of getting out of control. Not only did the British and the Russians urge, but the Qing court was slow to find a representative who could take on the big responsibility.

In the end, it was Li Hongzao who revealed the root cause: "If the Yang rebellion is not exterminated, there will be no peace in the country." ”

At the beginning of April 1895, Emperor Guangxu, who was full of anger, personally drove to Tianjin Machang to inspect the new army that had been trained.

Spring and summer are communicative, and the weather has seen and warmed. The riverside is full of greenery, and the breeze is slow, sending out a fragrant fragrance.

Coming out of the palace, it was like a fish returning to the sea, and Emperor Guangxu was depressed for a long time, and his mood was much better. When I arrived at the training ground of the horse factory, I couldn't help but feel relieved to see the neat and tidy troops.

On the playground, 7,000 soldiers of the New Army lined up in a neat queue, and under the leadership of Hu Liao, the supervisor of the New Army, and Yuan Shikai, the assistant of the New Army, they knelt down on one knee and shouted long live. The earth-shaking sound made Emperor Guangxu almost overjoyed, and he was full of pride for a while, just like chanting a poem to express his heart...... It's a pity that the writing is poor and I can't write it.

Many people have seen Yang Hao's new army parade that day. This time, the emperor saw with his own eyes that they had learned the same. Although you can't make a standard positive step formation, you can still make it out by walking in unison.

Yishui'er has a black military uniform, a large-brimmed hat, braids are lined up at the back, and the leggings are neatly tied. Rifles with bayonets on their shoulders walked past the reviewing stand in clusters, dusty, but extraordinary.

In three months, Guangxu was so excited that he applauded again and again. Before he came to the queue in person, he looked at the young elites selected from the provinces of Zhili with satisfaction, the height, the figure, and the mental outlook were not the same as the Qing army that had not pulled him in the past.

Back on the review stand, Guangxu asked Hu Liao: "Hu Aiqing, is such a sergeant worthy of a battle?" ”

Hu Liao's eyes rolled, and he said modestly: "The minister doesn't understand military affairs, and the details of military training are all specifically responsible for Yuan Assistant." The Holy God consulted him and understood more clearly. ”

The official who came out of Li Hongzhang's hands, seeing that the old chief himself was hiding, how could he not know how big the problem was here? If you have merit, you have to see if there is that head to resist, he simply put Yuan Shikai on top.

Yuan Shikai is asking for it. Immediately stepped forward and bowed to the ground: "The minister will never dare to take this credit." Relying on the mighty power of the Holy Heaven and knowing how to make good use of it, only then did he get these 7,000 sharp and healthy people. ”

Guangxu was not as easy to fool as before, his brows furrowed slightly, and he asked: "I ask you, how is the training of the new army, and can it be pulled out to fight?" ”

Yuan Shikai hesitated for a while. He knew very well, who the hell was this going to swing the knife to? Naturally, it was Yang Hao and Yang Jiajun. Maybe you can't beat it? He didn't have a clue about it. At the beginning, there was only one company of the new army, which already made him frightened and unable to help himself. Now there are more than 10,000 people, and tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers have been killed. That's a lot of crossing!

Seeing that he didn't answer immediately, Guangxu's heart was suddenly swept away. His face sank, and he shouted: "The imperial court has spent so much money, and it wants a strong army but can't get it. Could it be that you Aiqing only have a perfunctory reason? ”

These words will be heart-wrenching, fooling the emperor, that is going to lose his head.

Yuan Shikai was bold, stood up decisively, and replied fearlessly: "Holy Mingjian." After all, the training time of the new army is short, although it can be forbidden, after all, it has not seen a battle. The German instructors believed that it might be possible to compete with the Japanese army. At this scale, it is still too thin. ”

"Still can't you?"

Emperor Guangxu was greatly disappointed. He thought that if he threw a lot of money and had an edict, he would immediately be able to arouse the "conscience" of countless people in the world, so as to serve him hard. Isn't it just training, and you can get results in a few months.

As a result, Yuan Shikai said that it was not good? Is it that hard for him?

In good conscience, the new army is already quite good at the moment. In terms of establishment, we have changed the backward mode of the Huai Army, enriched the intermediate links, and formed a complete system of army, town, association, standard, battalion, team, platoon, and shed. A large number of officers filled in, and immediately the old hen turned into a duck, which was much better.

In terms of equipment, they received strong support from foreign devils, and they actually bought all kinds of advanced rifles from Yang Hao that were "exported to domestic sales" and unified their equipment. In addition, I got a lot of Grimm machine guns, and even the old version of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau!

Artillery is even more to go. There are piles of Krupp 75 field guns, 60mm rifle guns, and more than a hundred of them.

The whole army is divided into infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, baggage and other major arms of the army, which can be called complete.

The question of how much money is not enough for outsiders, but at least it has already risen. Emperor Guangxu usually reads the book of soldiers, and as far as his senses are concerned, he feels that this army is already quite good. Unexpectedly, it is still not as good as Yang Hao's new army!

Master Hu couldn't do anything about the excitement, so he hesitated for a moment, but still interjected: "Your Majesty, a good army needs to be honed in actual combat." Without flesh-and-blood combat, they can't become an iron army. ”

"Where can I find you a place to train?"

Emperor Guangxu had heard of this truth, but it was not easy to do. And today I have withdrawn, I want to negotiate peace, and there is no fight. He can't send everyone to the Goryeo Peninsula to continue working, right? That's outrageous.

At this time, Rong Lu's eyes turned to his heart, and he ran to him and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, the servants heard that there will be a big knife gathering in Shanxian County, Caozhou, to make trouble, and the local officials don't even dare to alarm. Can......? ”

Emperor Guangxu's eyes flashed, and he said categorically: "Then let them maintain the dignity of the imperial court!" (To be continued......)