The War Department did not take Meng Enyuan's telegram seriously. Tie Liang was not in the ministry that day, and went to the palace to do something. As a matter of fact, the War Department cannot be the master of the transfer of troops, and it needs the approval of the Military Aircraft Department. The War Office personnel filed the telegram as a general message.

When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a protest from the U.S. minister, saying that the Qing court must not infringe on U.S. assets, he demanded that the security of the United States of America's investments in China be ensured. The confused Foreign Ministry, of course, kicked things back to the War Department. Foreign affairs are all major matters, and Tie Liang found the telegram to know what happened. A telegram signed by Yang Shixiang, Bai Ruiting and several other senior officials also arrived, asking the War Department to recall Meng Enyuan and promise not to send troops into Shandong.

"It's been a fierce reaction. This Meng Enyuan really can't do anything, no, I'll go to Shandong, the fifth town must not be put back in Shandong. Liangbi said to Tie Liang.

"It seems that Shandong is really going to take it seriously." Tie Liang groaned. It was just a temptation, but now it has encountered an unexpected strong reaction.

"I don't think it's impossible," Pu Wei spoke, "The sixth town is in Hengshui, a stone's throw away from Shandong, and the sixth town can be sent into Shandong." Feng Guozhang was squeezed out of Shandong by Long Qian, and he was holding his breath. He was absolutely happy to carry out this order. Jinan's military factories must be taken over, and this cannot be compromised. These people were the core figures of the Manchurian aristocratic clique in charge of military affairs, and they always focused on military affairs in everything.

"If there are no foreigners involved, it would be easier to do it...... Now, though, it's a real opportunity. Liangbi was a little moved, and felt that this was not a good opportunity to take over Shandong.

"It's better to get the consent of the Queen Mother." Tie Liang was calmer than the two, "Don't worry. Let me think about it. ”

Before Tie Liang could figure out how to convince Cixi, the War Department received a secret report that the Shandong Patrol had begun to move, the Dezhou garrison had been assembled, and more troops were moving north to Dezhou from all parts of Jinan Prefecture.

"It's really the other way around!" Pu Wei is a young Zhuang faction, and when he heard the news, he shouted, "We can't find a reason." Sleepy gave a pillow ......"

"First of all, why did the Shandong Patrol Force move? Their reaction was also too fast...... "Liangbi is more stable than Pu Wei."

Shandong's call back soon arrived, saying that it was a scheduled exercise by the patrol force, and there was no other intention.

"This is rebellion! Don't let go of this opportunity easily......" Pu Wei was excited.

"How many troops does the Shandong Patrol have? How is the equipment training? Let's check the previous report of Shandong. ”

This doesn't need to be checked, Liangbi has it all in my head. "Previously, they had applied to merge the Shandong Patrol Battalion into a town. As far as I know. The total strength of the Shandong Patrol Army exceeded 10,000 people, and it was organized into two brigades, and the first brigade was stationed in Dezhou, which was commanded by Ye Yanbing. This man had previously served as the Commander of the Fifth Town. That's right. He is also Long Qian's brother-in-law. ”

I didn't expect to send a Meng Enyuan. poked out a series of things. To tell the truth, Tieliang did not have a plan to send troops to take over Shandong, and of course Shandong wanted to "recover". But that was after the four towns of Beiyang were completely incorporated and rectified, "Send a telegram to the Hengshui Eleventh Association to ask them to strengthen their vigilance." I'm going to go to the palace. ”

Before Tie Liang left, the eunuch sent by the palace came first, saying that the Queen Mother had an urgent matter to summon Tie Liang. So Tie Liang went to the palace first, he thought that the situation in Guangdong made the Queen Mother anxious, but he didn't expect a big move in Shandong.

A few days ago, I received a report from the governor of Guangdong, Yamen, saying that Sun Wen's revolutionary party was making trouble. Large-scale riots broke out in Huanggang and Huizhou one after the other, and the Cantonese newspaper affirmed that the riots were instigated by Sun Wen, and the current situation was extremely tense, and martial law had been imposed in Guangzhou, and the people who came from Hong Kong were strictly investigated, lest the revolutionary party should make trouble in Guangzhou.

What Cixi is most afraid of hearing now is the three words of the revolutionary party, and she is very nervous when she hears it. This is the same as Song Gaozong's fear of mentioning Jin Bing, it is said that the "founding" emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, who had no children all his life, was frightened by Jin Bing. Just after quelling the riots in Hunan and Jiangxi, Guangdong is making trouble again, and Guangdong is a different province from other places, and in the eyes of the imperial court, it is the most dangerous place. Fortunately in other places, the turmoil occurred in Guangdong, and the nature was completely different, because Sun Wen was from Guangdong, and most of the main cadres under him were from Guangdong. In the past, there were many reports in Guangdong, saying that the local people's hearts were fluctuating and not very quiet. In particular, during the Hunan and Jiangxi incidents, the local government was extremely nervous, for fear that the revolutionary party would respond to the incident in Guangdong.

Huanggang is not a county seat, it is a large town, belonging to Raoping County, Chaozhou Prefecture, although it is small, it is an important place for soldiers, because it is located between Fujian and Guangdong. After Huanggang was occupied by the rebels, the local patrol battalion sent troops to suppress it, but it was ambushed and defeated by the rebel army, which was dominated by the Hui Party, and seven people died in the patrol battalion, and the rest fled. Soon after, there was also a riot between Guishan and Boluo counties in Huizhou Prefecture, and a Hong Kong businessman named Deng Ziyu was ordered by Sun Wen to organize a local party uprising, and fought several battles with the Huizhou patrol battalion, winning and losing each other. It was reported that Sun Wen had sneaked back to Guangzhou in disguise and was planning to make an incident in Guangzhou, and the Guangdong government was in a hurry to send a telegram to Beijing and to take back the reliable troops to Guangzhou, for fear that something would go into chaos in Guangzhou.

The timing of the revolutionary party's move was wonderful, and the hard-line governor of Liangguang, Cen Chunxuan, had just been transferred to Beijing, and Liangguang was in a power vacuum.

The military aircraft department received an urgent telegram from Guangdong, naturally did not dare to slack off, and immediately played Cixi, Cixi continuously convened the military aircraft to discuss countermeasures, Cixi relied on Tie Liang very much in military affairs, and always summoned Tie Liang to consult the military. Therefore, Tie Liang is very clear about the situation in Guangdong.

Tie Liang tasted his mistake in the sedan chair that entered the palace. Shandong's "ulcer" should not be pierced at this time, because the imperial court is currently unable to open the battlefield at all, a major dispute has just ended internally, and there is a revolutionary party outside. It's really unwise to move Shandong now.

The Qing court was indeed in a crisis.

Prince Qing and the son of the military foreman Yixuan Zaizhen benefited from the reform of the central bureaucracy and served as the secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry and Commerce. When Zaizhen and Xu Shichang went to Tianjin on a business trip, they fell in love with a female singer named Yang Cuixi, and Duan Qirui, who was the patrol police chief office at the time, spent 100,000 taels of silver to redeem Yang Cuixi. Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui's relationship with Yuan Shikai is well known. So King Qing's father and son became Yuan Shikai's playthings more thoroughly, and they demanded that Yuan Shikai be respected.

The cause of the incident was the ownership of the command of the Beiyang Army.

Tie Liang took advantage of the reform of the bureaucratic system and became the head of the War Department with the support of Cixi, so as to control the entire Beiyang army. In the eyes of the world, Yuan Shikai, who was squeezed by Tie Liang with the righteousness of the central government, lost his armor and collapsed. But Yuan Shikai was a generation of heroes after all, and soon had a countermeasure, and started a game with Tie Liang (with the Manchurian magnates behind him) in another game of chess.

Yuan Shikai's plan to take back military power was to take advantage of the fact that the reform of the central bureaucratic system had come to an end, and the reform of the local bureaucratic system was about to begin, so it was suggested that the three eastern provinces should be started. First put Xu Shichang, the brother of Qi, on the throne of the governor of the three eastern provinces. In the name of tight border defense, the Beiyang Army was transferred out of the customs in a big way, so that the military power that was taken away by Tieliang would naturally come back.

Back in 1903. Cixi listened to Yuan Shikai's advice. The three provinces outside the Guanxi Province have been completely restructured. The three generals of Fengtian, Jilin and Heilongjiang were abolished, and governors were set up in each province, and governors of the three eastern provinces were set up to take charge of the military. At that time, it was recommended that Yuan Shikai's most hardcore close friend Xu Shichang. But the matter did not work out. Yuan Shikai's cadre Tang Shaoyi became the governor of Fengtian, but the governor of the three eastern provinces was suspended for a long time, and Xu Shichang did not take office. The Manchu aristocracy of the Gayin court was deeply afraid that Yuan Shikaiwei would not be able to lose his strength and strength. coincided with the war between Japan and Russia in the Kwantung region, and the imperial court came up with such a humiliating and ridiculous countermeasure as partial neutrality, and the governors of the three eastern provinces were the same in that situation, and Yuan Shikai let go of the matter. Now the situation has changed greatly, Yuan Shikai thinks that the best way to recover military power is to do the big article in the Northeast, so he put a heavy bet on Yi Xuan, and Yi Liang really does not disgrace his mission, with his position as the foreman of the military aircraft, Ming Cixi, now that the Russo-Japanese War is over, a major minister must be sent outside the border to control all parties. Cixi asked who was suitable, and Yixuan recommended Xu Shichang according to Yuan Shikai's opinion. Cixi said that Xu Shichang had just been appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and it had not been a few months. Yixuan said that anyone in the Ministry of Civil Affairs can do it, and Manchuria must be Xu Shichang. Cixi originally had a good impression of Xu Shichang, and once praised him as Li Hongzhang's second, and immediately agreed to Xu Shichang's appointment.

But before the appointment was announced, the "Beijing Daily" broke out the scandal of Duan Qirui's bribery of Zaizhen, and the details are so delicate that they are like a erotic novel. Since the beginning of "Beijing Daily", the newspapers of Jingshi have been staring at this case for a while, and Yuan Shikai and others can't suppress it if they want to.

No full-time regime can coexist with freedom of opinion, and this is the realistic version of the story of the east wind and the west wind. The reason why "Beijing Daily" dared to fire at the big man at the level of Shangshu was because its chief writer Wang Kangnian was the protégé of the big man. This big man is the maverick military minister Qu Hongzhen.

With the firepower of the press in front and the fact that there is a military minister behind him, Qu Hongzhen, who is not afraid of things, a political dispute has intensified. Everyone knows the relationship between Duan Qirui, Xu Shichang and Yuan Shikai, and for a while, including Tie Liang, who focused on military power, all contributed to Qu Hongzhen's reversal.

Qu Hongzhen joined the military in 1901 and won the trust of Cixi. The reason for trust is not only its ability, but more importantly, its incorruptibility, which has become an outlier in the muddy officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty imitated the Ming system, and the income of officials was extremely low, and there were few officials who did not live on bribes, especially the Beijing officials. Qu Hongzhen did not accept bribes but insisted on a lifetime, after he entered the military aircraft department, he was the de facto prime minister, I don't know how many officials in Lu Dao wanted to give him gifts to establish a relationship, he insisted on resigning, including Yuan Shikai, who became the governor of Zhili, took the opportunity of Qu Hongzhen's son to marry and sent a red envelope of eight hundred taels, which was a move to ask for directions, but I didn't expect Qu Hongzhen to not give face to the head of this hot minister, and the red envelope was returned, thus burying the mustard between the two.

Qu Hongzhen was insightful about Yuan Shikai's practice of making a big fuss about cultivating cronies by using the three eastern provinces to reform the official system. Because he doesn't take bribes, he's not afraid of things. After the "Beijing Daily" published the scandal of Duan Qirui bribing Zaizhen with a female actress, Qu Hongzhen seized the opportunity to attack Yixuan in front of Cixi. It just so happened that another Cixi's trusted Xinjiang minister, Cen Chunxuan, entered Beijing, who was also not afraid of things, and when he played Cixi, he told enough about the various scandals in Yixuan over the years, with names and surnames and facts, which surprised Cixi.

Cen Chunxuan did not serve as the governor of Liangguang for a long time, but he was known for his anti-corruption and was also a rare clean official. Maybe I was born in a rich family, and I am not short of money. Therefore, using the case of Yang Cuixi, he talked about all kinds of shortcomings in the officialdom today, and raised official corruption to the height of endangering the rule of the imperial court. Cixi was shocked, and Lian said that he never expected the collapse of the official rule to such an extent, and said to Cen Chunxuan again and again, "What you said is true. ”

Originally, Cixi was going to transfer Cen Ping to the position of governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. As far as the eight governors of the Qing court were concerned, the importance of the governors of Yunnan and Guizhou could not be compared not only with the two rivers, Huguang and Liangguang, but also with the governors of Shaanxi and Gansu. Cen Chunxuan has been under attack recently, and there are always people who speak ill of him in front of Cixi. Cixi was grateful for Cen Chunxuan's kindness in going thousands of miles to help, but she was just ready to move a place for him, and she didn't think about dismissing or demoting him. Now it seems. Cen Chunxuan is not welcomed. The point is that he is too incorruptible. Qingshui pond does not raise fish, Guangzhou is now the most prosperous commercial port, you cut off people's money, people will naturally fight back.

Cen Chunxuan had won a big victory. But he overdid it. He didn't just say that Yuan Shikai and Yi Xuan were traitors on the outside. also talked about Long Qian, saying that Long Qian became the commander of the army by giving a heavy gift to Yixuan, and this person was cunning and abnormal. Never reusable. The imperial court should remove Long Qian and Yuan Shikai from their posts and investigate and punish them thoroughly.

Cixi didn't like to hear this. Cen Chunxuan has gone a little too far. At the beginning, Cixi was difficult to leave Beijing, and the first to rush to the rescue was Long Qian, Cen Chunxuan was one step late, and his brilliance was much worse. Because Cen Chunxuan's father is a high-ranking official at the governor level, and his official connections are many times stronger than Long Qian's, and he was already in a high position as an envoy at the beginning, so after Cixi arrived in Taiyuan, she immediately appointed Cen Chunxuan as acting governor of Shanxi, so that he rose step by step, and within a few years he ascended to the high position of governor of Liangguang. Compared with Cen Chunxuan, Cixi even felt that Long Qian was a little lost, Cen Chunxuan was already a governor, but Long Qian, who had made great contributions, was still a commander. Now Cen Chunxuan is attacking Yixuan and Yuan Shikai, and even Long Qian, who is reused by himself, does not let go, so that Cixi calms down, and thinks that Cen Chunxuan may have formed a party with Qu Hongzhen, otherwise why is the pace so consistent? Cixi, like countless emperors, could tolerate corruption among her courtiers, but she did not tolerate gangs and factions below. Therefore, the thought of preparing to severely punish Yi Xuan, Zaizhen and his son, and then deal with Yuan Shikai was put on hold.

It's not over yet. Yi Liang instructed the imperial history Zhao Qilin to play to expose the truth of Yi Liang's bribery and official sales and Yang Cuixi's case. The duty of the imperial history is to impeach the officials, and Cixi can't be indifferent, so she dismissed Zaizhen and Duan Qirui, and ordered Zaifeng and Sun Jianai to investigate the matter thoroughly. Cixi said that if there is no evidence of corruption and betrayal of official positions, he will be allowed to rest. As for Yuan Shikai, of course, he must also deal with it seriously.

The precarious Yuan Shikai counterattacked, and the counterattack required Qu Hongzhen and Cen Chunxuan to die.

Qu Hongzhen's handle was quickly caught. Not being corrupt is not without mistakes, Qu Hongzhen should not have told his wife what Cixi said to Qu Hongzhen alone, and her wife should not have relayed such confidential information to the wife of Wang Kangnian, the editor-in-chief of the Beijing Daily, who had nothing to talk about. Wang Kangnian told the news to the Times' Morrison, who in turn reported to the British minister. At a banquet hosted by Cixi to entertain foreign envoys, the British minister Zhu Erdian tactfully expressed that he did not want Prince Qing to fall, which would affect the already good Sino-British relations.

Cixi was shocked, because she had only spoken to Qu Hongzhen about this. Her trust in Qu Hongzhen was shaken.

After Yuan Shikai conspired with Yixuan, he adopted even more despicable means. They also started from the imperial history, and bought a royal history named Yun Yuding with a lot of money, and asked this person to impeach Qu Hongzhen for "secretly informing the hall, instructing the official, conspiring with foreign aid, and distributing party henchmen". Then, Yixuan secretly played Cixi, and Cen Chunxuan befriended Kang Liang as early as the Wuxu period, plotting against him. Cixi was shocked and asked if Yixuan had any evidence, and Yixuan unhurriedly took out an ironclad piece of evidence that was enough to put Cen Chunxuan to death!

It was a photo of Cen Chunxuan and Kang Youwei, which was taken when the two met in Guangzhou recently.

Of course, the photo was faked, and it was the result of the technical processing of the two by the people in the photo studio.

Cixi was stunned, and she cried when she took that photo! If you count the people that Cixi hated in her life, Kang Youwei will definitely be on the list. Now, the minister she trusted the most had done such a thing!

After thinking about it for a few days, Cixi, who was emotional, really couldn't bear to attack Qu Hongzhen and Cen Chunxuan, and ordered Qu and Cen to be reinstated to their hometowns and never be used! She can tolerate the minister's corruption and play with women, but she can never tolerate the minister's disloyalty to her regime.

Qu Hongzhen's independent existence as a military aircraft department ended. Cixi thought twice and transferred Yuan Shikai to the Military Aircraft Department and concurrently served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, he ordered the governor Zhang Zhidong, who was old and qualified, to enter the military aircraft department to contain Yuan Shikai. In this way, when the chaos in Guangdong was still in peace and the chaos in Shandong was rising again, the center of the Qing court completed the most important adjustment of power. After the adjustment, the military aircraft department is four full and three Han: Yixuan, Natong, Shixu, Zaifeng, Lu Chuanlin and Yuan Shikai.

This was the last major political dispute in the Qing court. The result ended in the defeat of Qu Hongzhen and Cen Chunxuan. Yixuan, who did the "clearing" with his own hands, and his ally Yuan Shikai successfully survived a major crisis. From the perspective of the imperial court, Qu Hongzhen and Cen Chunxuan are both talents that should be reused, and such people are necessary to maintain the precarious rule of the imperial court. But just as bad money always drives out good money, under a certain system, clean officials will always be unable to fight corrupt officials. The fighting methods of Qu Hongzhen, Cen Chunxuan, Yixuan, and Yuan Shikai are just not special cases that once again prove this truth. (To be continued......)

PS: I wish book friends a happy Dragon Boat Festival! It's already the end of the month, and if you have a monthly pass in your hand, give it to Aaron.