A new dark green tweed sedan chair stopped at the Jingyun Gate on the east side of the Forbidden City, and Li Hongzhang walked out of the sedan chair wearing a Zhengyipin official uniform with a dignified expression. He took out a large, shiny pocket watch from his left sleeve pocket and looked at it, the hour hand was exactly seven o'clock. This is a Swiss watch, which was given by Zeng Jize, the minister to Britain and France. He has been using this pocket watch for ten years, carrying it with him everywhere, and has developed the habit of taking it out every once in a while.

Looking at the pocket watch, Li Hongzhang thought that after returning to China, he was "trapped" in the Tongwen Pavilion by Prince Alcohol, and the depressed junior sighed.

"Hey, I'm sorry for Ji Ze!"

At this time, the Jingyun Gate had been opened, and several guards with swords and guns were standing on both sides. Li Lianying, the chief eunuch who was deeply favored by Cixi, was already waiting by the door, and when she saw that Li Hongzhang had walked out of the sedan door, she hurriedly greeted her. Because Li Lianying's status is extraordinary, many ministers are courteous to him. Some want to go through his door and ask for a shortcut to promotion; Some didn't want to stammer, but just to prevent him from saying unfavorable things to themselves in front of the Queen Mother, so they had to pretend to him. Li Lianying has been in the palace for a long time, and he has seen more princes and ministers, and he also knows how capable these princes are. These unstoppable figures in the Qing Dynasty, to be honest, Li Lianying looks down on many of them, and there are not many people who really make him admire from his heart, and among the few people, there is this Lord Li in front of him. In Li Lianying's eyes, Li Hongzhang is a real all-rounder of civil and military affairs who governs the country and stabilizes the world, and even his kind of aura is not comparable to ordinary people.

"Old Xiangguo, you have to enter the palace so late, you are so hard!"

Li Lianying usually says this to those princes and ministers, but only he knows that what he says on weekdays is just politeness, and tonight's sentence is said from the heart.

"The country is eventful, and we can't help but work hard. Mr. Li, how are you doing lately?"

Although Li Hongzhang, who knows the way of being an official, looks down on eunuchs in his heart, the one in front of him is the favored slave next to the Queen Mother, and a rare smile appeared on his face.

"Thanks to the blessing of the old minister, it's okay."

Li Lianying was grateful for the concern of this figure he admired, so she approached Li Hongzhang's side and stretched out a hand to support Li Hongzhang.

"It's getting dark, Lao Xiangguo walks slowly."

Li Lianying took care of Li Hongzhang in a tone that was close to what she usually said to Cixi. At the same time, he shouted orders to a group of eunuchs nearby.

"Light the lantern and lead the way for the old Xiangguo!"

So the eight big red palace lamps were lit together. Six lamps opened the way in front, two guards in the back, and in the middle, Li Lianying personally supported Li Hongzhang, crossed the Jingyun Gate, and walked towards Ningshou Palace. After the emperor's big wedding last year, the queen mother after returning to the government should live in Cining Palace according to the custom, Cining Palace is a place for the widows of the former emperors to live. Since the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, Cining Palace has always been the place where the queen mothers, concubines and concubines of all dynasties lived. But the Queen Mother didn't want to go to Cining Palace, she took a fancy to Ningshou Palace; Ningshou Palace has its own unique metaphor of power, this palace was built in the Kangxi period, and later the Qianlong Emperor renovated it in order to create a retirement place after his return to power.

For more than 100 years after Qianlong, Ningshou Palace has always been uninhabited. For no other reason, this is the residence of the Emperor Taishang and the Emperor Taishang who does not hand over power. For more than a hundred years, no one has such qualifications to live in Ningshou Palace, and the Queen Mother's choice of Ningshou Palace is obviously the clear power metaphor behind it. The old empress dowager must return to the government at the moment, but the old empress dowager was unwilling to hand over her power, she used the political zhì hidden words of staying in Ningshou Palace, and announced to the ministers of the Great Qing State that she was the emperor of the Great Qing State at this moment, and she wanted to follow the precedent of Emperor Qianlong returning to power but not handing over power.

In this regard, everyone knows that the queen mother is unwilling to hand over power, and the emperor is already in power, and the irreconcilable contradiction is the result of the irreconcilable Qing country, which is that the Qing Dynasty is caught in the party struggle between the imperial party and the later party.

From Weng Tonggong's statement last year that foreign affairs are the first priority of the country, and then to support Zhang Zhidong as the governor of Huguang with Prince Alcohol, and support him to build railways and set up foreign affairs, on the surface, it seems to be a personal contradiction with Li Hongzhang, but in the final analysis, it is still a party struggle between the imperial party and the later party, so that the household department wrote to stop the purchase of foreign guns and warships in the South and North Seas, all of which are the result of the dispute between the queen and the queen, and Li Hongzhang knows his name about this, whether it is the cultivation and reuse of the queen mother in the early years, or the discord with Weng Tonggong, made him inevitably fall into this contradiction, and he has long been regarded as the "first person in the post-party area", so it is natural that he will have today's trip.

The road that Li Lianying supported Li Hongzhang was the road that divided the front court and the back yard in the Forbidden City. Looking in the direction of the temple on the left, there is a palpitating black silence; Looking in the direction of the Qianqing Gate on the right, there are only a few sparse sparks. Passing through this dark dividing place, you will come to Ningshou Palace, located in the northeast of the Forbidden City, where the lights are noticeably brighter. When Li Hongzhang crossed the Yanqi Gate and entered the front yard of the Hall of Human Cultivation, he was dizzy for a while, and the lights here were bright and bright as day. Following Li Lianying, Li Hongzhang walked into the warm pavilion and stood still outside the door curtain.

After a while, Li Lianying lifted the curtain and said to Li Hongzhang outside the door:

"Old Xiangguo, the Queen Mother told you to go in."

Li Hongzhang stepped into the threshold, stood solemnly, then knelt down, took off the hat decorated with big red coral and peacock feathers with dazzling eyes, put it aside, and kowtowed respectfully. stood up again, held the hat in his left hand, took a few steps forward, came to the queen mother's side, knelt down again, put the hat on the floor tile at hand, and shouted in an official tone with a thick Luzhou accent:

"Minister Li Hongzhang knocked on the Queen Mother, I wish the Queen Mother a long life!"

"Get up!"

Cixi said softly, and then commanded Li Lianying, who was standing by the door.

"Bring a stool to Li Zhongtang."

"Thank you for the kindness of the Empress Dowager, the ministers don't dare to sit."

Li Hongzhang was not moved by Cixi's special favor, and he was already used to it. Li Lianying quickly brought a delicate catalpa wood square stool and placed it next to Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang still didn't dare to get up.

"Li Hongzhang, you are an old minister of the Four Dynasties who is nearly seventy years old, and tonight is not the usual call, you can talk for a longer time, just sit and talk slowly!"

Li Hongzhang, who had long been accustomed to this, was persuaded by the Queen Mother, so he stood up, put the dazzling red coral hat on his head upright, and then sat down on the Zimu square bench generously.

"Li Hongzhang, you want to tell me something about the water master, you can say it! That is, you, know that my family affairs are state affairs, and remember the mourning family! ”

Cixi seems to be wronged when she says this, but in fact, she is telling Li Hongzhang that she knows what those people in the household department do, and she will naturally support him when she needs it.

"The minister wants to report another matter to the Queen Mother."

The meaning of the Queen Mother's words, how could Li Hongzhang not understand, knowing that the Queen Mother had no intention, at least now she has no intention of supporting the water master, because the reason is very simple, Weng Tonggong talked about the point, the household has no money, if it is given to the water master, then the garden does not need to be repaired, the Summer Palace is used by the Queen Mother as a place to take care of the heavenly years, although the Queen Mother has no intention of raising the heavenly years at all, you can repair a garden, not only to do the article, but also to go to the new garden on weekdays to relax.

Knowing the Queen Mother's thoughts, Li Hongzhang naturally wouldn't make the Queen Mother unhappy, not to mention, he came here today really not to ask for silver for the Beiyang Navy, that silver still needs to be slowly figured.

Li Hongzhang was still smart, and seeing that he didn't make it difficult for him, Cixi nodded with satisfaction.

"Oh, what's the matter, Li Hongzhang, you can say it!"

No, Yuan Shikai, the governor of Korea, sent a telegram from Seoul to Tianjin, saying that the envoys stationed in Korea and Japan had changed people, and the ban on grain exports promoted by the Korean government had been turned from a commercial affair to a foreign affair. ”

"This Oriental is really, isn't it just some rice grains? Can you make such a big move? ”

Every day, I look forward to this national situation to be quieter, and I can enjoy two days of happiness, but who would have thought that there would be no day when I was born, and I was not afraid of internal affairs, but I was worried about this foreign affairs, and the experience of hunting with the first emperor in the north thirty years ago had already left a shadow in Cixi's heart, and she naturally did not want foreign affairs to be in vain, so she directly interrupted Li Hongzhang's words.

"Back to the Empress Dowager, these big foreign affairs in the East, people from the countryside into the city to work, the price of Oriental rice is rising day by day, and its factory owners and even grain merchants are willing to buy cheap Korean rice for the workers to eat, so the Japanese attach great importance to this matter."

Li Hongzhang has dealt with foreigners for many years, and knows the temperament of foreigners.

"These Orientals have learned from Westerners everywhere over the years, and naturally they have little education, so they will make a big deal in this little thing."

He didn't want to touch Cixi's interest, so he could only answer according to her words.

Actually, Cixi's mind is very clear-headed, and she also knows that it has nothing to do with whether the Oriental people are educated or not, but she likes to listen to this, at least it sounds comfortable, and the dignity of the Heavenly Kingdom is still there.

"Did Yuan Shikai say that the Oriental people put forward some requirements?"

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