It's been three days, and Zhu Tao has been looking for an opportunity to talk to Rong'er every time he is on duty, but every time he can only watch her run away from him, he feels that he can't go on like this anymore.

On this day, Zhu Tao was on duty in the middle of the night with Sergeant Sun He and Sergeant Feng Rou, and he was stationed alone in the inner courtyard, which was facing the main entrance of the Queen Mother's inner room. The moonlight is like water, the stars are scattered, the night is beautiful, Zhu Tao has no intention of enjoying the scenery, and always maintains twelve points of vigilance to fulfill his duty as a guard.

"Ahh ”

"It's me, Rong'er."

Zhu Tao couldn't believe his ears, the little palace maid who avoided with a red face when she saw her during the day actually sneaked out in the middle of the night, did she have to have a tryst in the next month to suit her heart?

Under the moonlight, Rong'er stood quietly, dressed in a plain shirt, with soft hair, a beautiful face, and a light body.

"Y-what's the matter?" After a while, Zhu Tao desperately squeezed out a sentence.

Rong'er looked at the sky and pointed to the disc-like bright moon: "Don't you think the moon is beautiful tonight?" ”

"Yes, it's beautiful." Zhu Tao stared at her and said.

Rong'er looked up at Mingyue and sighed: "It's a pity that it can't be so beautiful every day." ”

Zhu Tao didn't know what she wanted to say, but felt that her expression of concentrating on admiring the moon was so beautiful, and her heart immediately softened.

"You came out secretly, aren't you afraid that the Queen Mother will know the truth?"

Rong'er shook her head: "It's okay, I will sneak out when the moon is full, and when I see the round moon, I think of my family, thinking that they should also be looking at the moon and thinking about me-"

Zhu Tao heard her mention her family, and felt that she said goodbye to her parents at a young age, and came to this past world to work hard for her future, and it was impossible to be filial to her parents in the future, so she couldn't help but sigh.

"Zhu Tao, your name is Zhu Tao, right?" Rong'er asked suddenly.

"Yes."

"What are you sighing for?"

"It's nothing, I'm missing my family a little bit."

"Oh? I heard that you are from the United States of America, but I have never heard of such a country, can you tell me about it? ”

Zhu Tao was secretly happy in his heart, from accosting to chatting, he took a crucial step, and then, with a little tactical literacy he gained in the 21st century love struggle, it should not be very difficult to get it.

"Okay, where do you start?"

Rong'er sat on the handrail by the cloister and beckoned Zhu Tao to come over: "Sit down and say, let's talk about where your family lives first, the houses there, are the people the same as here?" ”

Zhu Tao leaned on her and sat down: "Of course it's different, there are dozens of floors of buildings everywhere, and the roads are often stuffed with cars-"

"What is a car?"

Zhu Tao thought for a moment and explained: "It's just a cart that doesn't need to be pulled by a horse." ”

"That's a cart pulled by oxen?"

"No, no, no." Zhu Tao doesn't know how much his current IQ has dropped, he has only heard on the Internet that "people in love have zero IQ".

"What's that? You won't use sheep to pull it, will you? ”

Zhu Tao patted his head and said, "Anyway, it's not pulled by animals, the car - as long as you pour oil into it, it will move on its own, faster than all the horses in the world-"

"Really? If that's the case, I'd like to sit in it—I just rode in an ox cart when I entered the palace. ”

Zhu Tao looked at her big eyes and blinked, that cute look, he couldn't wait to get to the point immediately, get her started as soon as possible, but his face put on a gentlemanly look, and said: "I have a Xiali car at home, red, I learned to drive it before I was admitted to the military academy, if I bring it, I can take you for a ride now." ”

"For a ride?"

"It's just running on the road in a car, at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour, that feeling of flying, it's so cool-"

Rong'er shook her head: "What you said, why can't I understand it?" ”

"It's okay, there should be a car in Beijing soon, and I'll take you for a ride when the time comes—just by car, okay?"

"Do you count?" Rong'er tilted her head to look at him, that playful look was almost pirated from Xiao Lin, and Zhu Tao had to strengthen his will control over his hands and feet to prevent them from acting deviantly.

"Of course it counts, if you don't believe me, I can swear to God-"

"No, it's not a big deal—"

Before Rong'er could finish speaking, a hard object grazed her right arm and inserted it into the pillar, which turned out to be an iron dart.

Zhu Tao immediately pulled the screaming Rong'er, pressed her to the side, and the automatic rifle in his hand immediately turned on the safe, and released a few shots towards the place where the darts came from, and after a scream, a black shadow fell from the roof.

By the moonlight, Zhu Tao saw that there were still seven or eight black shadows on the roof, they heard the gunshots, paused, and saw that Zhu Tao was the only one below, so they rushed over with a big knife together.

Zhu Tao fixed the automatic rifle and fired towards the enemy group, and in a few seconds, he ran out of shuttles, but there were still three people left on the other side, as if he knew that he had run out of ammunition, and jumped into the courtyard without any scruples, and the big knife was shining in the moonlight.

Life and death were only in a thought, Zhu Tao faced the man in black who was close at hand, reflexively pulled out his pistol and fired several shots, and at the same time his body took two steps back and stuck it to the wall.

The three men in black splattered blood and fell one after another.

With a "click", the pistol fell, and then a stream of red liquid landed along Zhu Tao's arm, and a large knife was inserted into his right shoulder blade.

In the haze, Zhu Tao saw Rong'er slowly stand up, and suddenly fell to the ground, Zhong Xiahuo led everyone over, shouting something-

※※※

In Zhongnanhai, Guangxu is strolling along the water's edge with Liu Yun and Wen Yi.

"Dr. Wen, you said that there will be a war between China and Japan, and this war is related to the future and destiny of the two countries, and we must prepare as soon as possible, but Japan is only a small island country, how dare it challenge our Qing Dynasty?"

Wen Yi replied to Guangxu: "Your Majesty, can you remember that in the 14th year of Tongzhi, Japan sent more than 3,000 troops to invade our Taiwan under the pretext that the Ryukyu boat people were killed, and then Shen Baozhen, who was then the Minister of Shipping, led the army to retreat, but still unreasonably asked for 500,000 taels of silver. In the 5th year of Guangxu, Japan formally annexed Ryukyu by force and changed it to Okinawa Prefecture. At that time, Japan only had two or three foreign clippers, so it dared to offend the Celestial Empire and destroy our subject country. Today, the Japanese Navy has five warships of more than 2,000 tons, totaling 17,000 tons, the army has 63,000 elite standing troops and 230,000 reserve troops, while our Beiyang Naval Division has seven warships of more than 2,000 tons, totaling more than 27,000 tons, and there are more than 400,000 standing defense forces and training troops of the national army. However, Japan spends 60 percent of its national revenue every year to develop its navy, and its strength is growing day by day, and new clippers and ironclad ships continue to join, on the other hand, the Beiyang Naval Division, which has not added a single ship since Guangxu became an army in 14 years, and the Hunan Army, the Huai Army, and the various training and defense armies inherit the bad habits of the Green Battalion, which is already rotten. At that time, the loss of troops will be compensated, the land will be ceded and the people will be depressed, the great powers will be divided, and the country will not be a country. ”

Guangxu pondered for a moment, and then asked, "Then does Dr. Wen know where the war will start?" ”

"North Korea." Wen Yi did not hesitate to spit out these two words, in fact, Guangxu's question can be answered by any middle school student in the 21st century.

"North Korea?"

"Yes, North Korea. Japan is an island country, separated by thousands of miles of ocean from the hinterland of Gyeonggi, and the nearest mainland country is Korea, and it has always been Japan's long-cherished wish to use Korea as a springboard to invade the Central Plains. As early as the early Tang Dynasty, there was the battle of the mouth of the Bailong River, and the Japanese were defeated. After the former Ming Dynasty, Japan's Guanbai Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent hundreds of thousands of troops to invade Korea, almost occupying 3,000 miles of splendid rivers and mountains in Korea, the Ming Dynasty sent troops to rescue, defeated the Japanese army, and Korea was saved from extinction. In the second year of Guangxu, the Japanese Navy and Army went to Korea to coerce Korea to sign the "Ganghwa Treaty" by force, and obtained the privileges of trade lease, consular jurisdiction, and freedom of navigation along the coast of Korea. In the 8th year of Guangxu, Japan took advantage of the Renwu Mutiny in Korea, under the pretext that the embassy staff was killed, and marched into Korea on a large scale, when the Empress Dowager ordered to send troops into Korea to quell the chaos, the Japanese army saw that there was no gap to take advantage of, so under the pretext of compensating for losses, coerced Korea to sign the "Incheon Treaty" and obtained the right to garrison troops in Seoul. In the 10th year of Guangxu, Japan took advantage of the Sino-French war to conspire with Korean traitors to launch the Jiashen coup, and the Korean king suppressed the coup with the help of our army. In the 11th year of Guangxu, Japan signed the "Special Article of the Sino-Japanese Tianjin Conference" with China, stipulating that if major disturbances occur in Korea in the future, China and Japan or one country must notify each other in advance if they need to send troops to Korea. In this way, Japan has gained equal rights in Korea with us, and in the event of chaos in Korea in the future, Japan will send a large army into Korea, expel our army, annex Korea, and then wait for an opportunity to march into the Central Plains and force me to accept its demands. ”

Guangxu nodded: "Dr. Wen is reasonable, although the foundation of the country lies in the people, the foundation pillar is really armament. It's just that the Queen Mother has been in power for many years, and since she returned to the government last year, the important ministers of the court are still obeying the Queen Mother's orders, and the Union is struggling. And there is no credible pro-Rui army in the Union, the Huai Army is in the north, the Hunan Army is in the south, and the rest of the training army and the defense army are separated between the two armies and the Queen Mother, and none of the troops are really willing to obey the orders of the Union. ”

Liu Yundao: "The emperor doesn't have to worry, the ministers will be able to train a strong army for the emperor before the Sino-Japanese war, go down to the princes of all walks of life, and control the foreigners from the east and west." ”

Guangxu watched the ripples of the water and moon up close, and his face showed a look of relief: "With you loyal and righteous people to serve in the Union, the Qing Dynasty is hopeful." ”

"Newspaper—"

A guard ran over, knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, the Tiger Guards have sent someone to report that there is something in the Queen Mother's dormitory, please go to Commander Liu immediately to discuss." ”

※※※

"Sergeant Sun He and Sergeant Feng Rou died of darts, and Second Lieutenant Zhu Tao was hit with a knife below his right shoulder blade, and the knife was poisonous, and now Zhu Tao is still in a coma. In addition, a palace maid named Rong'er was bruised by a poison dart and also fainted. There were 9 intruders, dressed in black and masked, using broadswords and darts, and all of them had died after being shot. That's the case. Zhong Xiahuo held his breath and reported.

Liu Yun was surprised in his heart, but he didn't show his face, and ordered calmly: "Call the base immediately, send a helicopter, and transport Zhu Tao and Rong'er back to the base for treatment." In addition, the personnel left behind at the base were ordered to speed up the progress of road repair and open up the ground connection between the base and the capital. I will ask the emperor to send more henchmen to assist the tiger guards to protect the queen mother, everyone must strengthen vigilance and not let the tragedy happen again! ”

Everyone listened to the order and returned to their posts. Liu Yun called Wen Yi and rushed back to Zhongnanhai.

On the way, Liu Yun's face was gloomy, and he said hatefully: "It's all my fault, if only the plan was more careful and I could bring more advanced equipment when I came, if I was equipped with an automatic monitoring and defense system tonight, this kind of thing would not happen at all!" ”

Wen Yizhi said that he was annoyed, but he also responded unceremoniously: "What about advanced equipment, the automatic monitoring system needs electricity, the battery we bring is just enough for communication equipment, and the solar panels at the base can only maintain the repeated charging needs of the batteries of communication equipment." Now the key is to build up an army, an elite force that is nominally loyal to the emperor but is actually in control of our hands, without which we will all die sooner or later. ”

Liu Yun exhaled, forced himself to calm down a little, and turned to Wen Yi and said, "I have an ominous premonition, tonight's incident must be related to a certain court official, and the purpose is probably to find out the truth about the chaos in the palace three days ago." If this is the case, our situation will not be good, if the people in the court know our true identity, or even just find out that the Queen Mother has been detained by us, the world will inevitably be in chaos, and the situation will be uncontrollable, and the emperor and we may be finished together. ”

"We need time," Wen Yi also sank his head, "The Praetorian Guard Company has only been created for a few days, although there are enough modern weapons to equip them, but if they are not trained enough, they will not be able to fight at all." ”

"To control the situation in the capital, at least one brigade of new troops is needed, and the emperor has promised to allocate 100,000 taels of silver for us to prepare a new army, but in two or three months, the troops will not be able to form a basic combat effectiveness. At this time, whether it is the post-party group or the Hunan army and the Huai army, they can make us a mess like stepping on an eggshell. We don't have enough ammunition to stop thousands of enemies, and besides, they have guns and artillery - I wonder how much they already know! ”

Wen Yi sighed: "No way, resign yourself to fate, if it really doesn't work, we can let the Praetorian Guards block it first, and the others will return to the base by helicopter, and it will be better to be a robber than to be killed in vain." ”

Liu Yun gritted his teeth: "We can't come step by step, we must speed up the progress." No matter how risky it is, we have to do it, and when the bullet comes out, we can only move forward, either hitting the target and completing the mission, or we will get worthless into the dirt and become garbage. It is necessary to get rid of the post-party clique as soon as possible, let the imperialist clique take control of the military aircraft department, and obtain the right to mobilize troops; for this reason, I plan to step up the training of the Praetorian Guard Company, and in a few days to launch a coup d'état in Beijing according to the situation, so as to wipe out all the post-party elements in the military aircraft department. ”

"A coup d'état with a company? It's very difficult, but there is no other choice, do you want to explain it to the emperor? ”

"We need the emperor's help, but we can't let him know all about us, I know how to say to him."

"Since we have successfully come here, we will not be finished easily, Liu Yun, what you want to do will definitely succeed, I bet my life on you!"

Liu Yun grabbed Wen Yi's shoulder and shook it: "Good brother, we live and die together, this era is either dominated by us or slaughtered by us, we are here to do great things, and anyone who hinders us will have to pay the price." ”