In the early spring of the 16th year of Guangxu, the whole capital was bathed in gentle sunshine, and the streets were crowded with pedestrians. The city is particularly prosperous in the area of the overpass, with many shops, tourists weaving, hawkers and ants gathering, and the sound of selling and bargaining comes and goes.

In front of one of the ordinary tofu brain stalls, several men in short shirts were sitting and chatting, and a big man with a beard said: "I can hear it clearly, the gunfire rang out in the middle of the night, and it definitely came from the Forbidden City." ”

A small man with a goatee next to him said, "Why didn't I hear it, the place where I live is closer to the Forbidden City." ”

He scolded nonsense: "You sleep like a dead pig, you don't know what to do when people break your belly, and there is a fart to live in." ”

Another mustache said; "In this palace, there was indeed something last night, do you know the way-"

The mustache motioned for everyone to lean their heads over, and whispered: "I know an old man in the palace, he came out to buy things this morning, and told me that the people of the White Lotus Sect had an incident in the palace last night, and they almost didn't kill the Queen Mother, but fortunately, there was a group of righteous people who came from nowhere, a total of more than a dozen people, who killed all the more than 1,000 White Lotus Sect traitors, and saved the Queen Mother like this, and now they are still staying by the Queen Mother's side." ”

He didn't believe it: "Nonsense, how can a dozen or so people kill thousands of people, even if there are foreign guns, it doesn't matter, but I heard that the people of the White Lotus Sect have charms to protect themselves, and they are invulnerable, if they really rebel in the palace, not to mention the queen mother, the emperor will be gone long ago." ”

The mustache retorted; "What kind of invulnerability, do you really believe this, a few years ago when I was mixed in Shanxi, I saw dozens of White Lotus Sect disciples on the execution ground being beheaded, and with a knife down, their heads rolled to the side. Spell? Top bird thing. If you want to say that those dozen righteous people, since they can sneak into the palace to escort them, they must have a lot of ability, not to mention the eaves and walls, they must have some magical skills, and there are more than a dozen of them in one palm, which is really amazing——"

A young man wearing a hat next to him listened carefully to their conversation, drinking tofu brain slowly, until the people were tired of chatting and dispersed on their own, he got up and called the boss: "How much?" ”

The boss counted the bowls on the table; "A total of six bowls, six pennies."

The young man threw a piece of silver: "No need to look for it." ”

The boss was pleasantly surprised: "Thank you, young master, thank you, young master." ”

A smile flashed across the young man's face, his handsome face, this smile, but it was a little charming.

The young man walked through the streets and alleys, entered a large mansion, and stopped in the antechamber.

"Chun'er, see Master Li." He—no—should have been her kneeling and bowing to an old man sitting in the middle of the antechamber.

The old man said, "Don't be polite, tell me, what did you hear on the street?" ”

Chun'er got up and said: "It was said that there was a rebellion of the White Lotus Sect in the palace last night, but it was thwarted by more than a dozen mysterious masters, and now the queen mother and the emperor are safe." ”

The old man groaned for a while and asked Chun'er, "Do you believe it?" ”

"Chun'er doesn't dare to say anything."

"So-" The old man thought for a while, and then ordered: "Chun'er, I am going to arrange for you to enter the palace, go to the emperor's side, and report to me the movements in the palace at all times." Up to now, there has been no news of anyone else in the palace except the prince, so when the time comes, you will directly find the prince and contact me through the prince. ”

"Chun'er obeys."

"Chun'er." The old man suddenly changed his deep tone.

"Yes." Chun'er replied respectfully.

"It's been sixteen years, although you weren't raised by me, and I treat you as a subordinate on the surface, but in fact, in my heart, I have always regarded you as my daughter."

"Chun'er knows the way."

"You have suffered all these years, although I Li Hongzhang is busy all day long, but there is no lack of favors, after the completion of this mission, I will officially accept you as a righteous daughter, and then find you a rich and noble family that is right with me, and live a life of fine clothes and food from now on, okay?"

Chun'er knelt down and thanked: "Your Excellency, Chun'er will never forget, and Chun'er will live up to her mission in this mission." ”

※※※

In a corner outside the palace wall, outside the small gate that was originally the collection of eunuch miscellaneous labor, a group of people are waiting in line to be selected, but they are not here to apply for eunuch miscellaneous labor, and there is a notice posted on the palace wall: "Recruit the internal guards-".

Ding Jieyun and his members of the teaching team were dressed in inappropriate guard clothes to select the applicants, and they were busy for most of the afternoon, and only 4 or 50 people were selected, which was far from the quota of 130 people.

"The majority of people who are thin, smokers, and illiterate people are the majority, won't they weigh themselves before they come in and sign up?" Wu Dingguo complained.

"It's difficult, one of the drawbacks of feudal society is that literate people are not physically good, and those who are physically illiterate are illiterate, and the conditions set by Captain Liu are too harsh." Ding Jieyun shook his head and continued to work.

A bearded man strode up to Ding Jieyun and stood there, his hands crossed around his waist, and the muscles on his body stood out under the short cloth coat.

"Name?"

"Xiao Lieri."

"Age?"

"24 years old."

Ding Jieyun glanced at his beard and said, "More than that, 24 years old is such a big beard?" ”

"Aren't you glad I shaved it?"

Ding Jieyun was also tired, and just wanted to call it a day after picking this one, so he continued to ask casually: "What did you do?" ”

"Blacksmith, just like my father."

"Do you smoke a lot?"

"Can I still do this work?"

"Literate?"

"Understand."

Ding Jieyun motioned for Wu Dingguo to test it, then yawned and leaned back in his chair.

Wu Dingguo took a test strip and asked Xiao Lieri to spit on it, and the test strip appeared blue.

"It's true that you don't smoke much, so write your name."

Xiao Lieri took the pen and wrote the words "Xiao" and "Day" on the white paper tremblingly, leaving a blank in the middle.

"Isn't your name Xiao Lieri? What about the word Spirit? ”

"Forget."

Wu Dingguo turned around and asked Ding Jieyun, and when he saw Ding Jieyun shrugging his shoulders, he said to Xiao Lieri: "You can go." ”

"I'm not leaving! I must be Ouchi's bodyguard. Xiao Lieri stood still, putting on a posture of never giving up until the goal was reached.

Ding Jieyun was annoyed, and said: "You think the palace is your home, you can come in if you want to come in, the emperor wants us to choose guards, not to contain the illiterate ruffians and hooligans, you are a little conscious." ”

"Official, I'm a blacksmith, not a ruffian."

"Anyway, we don't accept people who can't even write their own names, so let's go."

"Look at my figure, plus a body of fists and feet, can't I compare to a word?" Xiao Lieri stretched out his strong arms, which was indeed very imposing.

"What kind of kung fu do you know as a blacksmith, let's go."

"I can be one against ten! Let all of you go up, as long as someone can knock me to the ground, I won't say a word, turn around and walk away, and I won't even come back to the capital from now on. ”

Ding Jieyun closed the notebook and waved his hand to signal Wu Dingguo to settle him.

Three seconds later, Wu Dingguo flew to the wall and knocked unconscious.

Ding Jieyun was stunned and shouted: "Liu Bailiang, Zhang Yaoqian, you guys are up." ”

The two special forces fighters from the support team couldn't stand the three punches and two kicks, only to see Xiao Lieri dodge left and right, and with a flick of the bear's arm, Liu Bailiang, who was 1.80 meters long, fell to the ground, Yan Bu stepped forward, and kicked the thinner Zhang Yaoqian, causing him to fly three meters away and knock down another guard.

"Stop!" Ding Jieyun roared, and Xiao Lieri stood with his hands on his hips again.

"Okay, we'll take you in, but you still have to learn to write in it, and I'll come back to test you in three months, if you don't qualify, then it's no wonder to us."

Xiao Lieri suddenly knelt down: "Thank you, Master Guan! ”

※※※

Sunset, sunset shines brightly.

In Yingtai, Zhongnanhai, Emperor Guangxu is receiving ten "learned people" recommended by Liu Yun and Wen Yi.

Liu Yun changed into the official uniform of the four-grade guard, equipped with a waist knife, and added a fake braid under the red tasseled hat, and the posture of the Qing palace guards was put on display.

Wen Yi and others wore long shirts and horse coats, melon skin hats on their heads, and dragged fake braids behind their heads, which also became the appearance of Qing Dynasty literati.

Liu Yun looked at the group of literati he had recruited with satisfaction, and counted them one by one:

Dr. Niu Jin, aged 33, graduated from the School of Science and Technology of Tsinghua University, is an industrial management engineer and served as the deputy chief engineer of Capital Iron and Steel Company.

Han Lang, aged 25, graduated from Nanjing University Business School with a master's degree in finance, and was a teaching assistant at Nanjing University Business School.

Tian Zhenghong, aged 27, graduated from the Business School of Yunnan University with a master's degree in national economics, and was a lecturer at the Law and Business School of Guangxi Normal University.

Mo Ning, 24 years old, graduated from the School of Social Culture of Guangxi Normal University with a master's degree in political science;

Ma Feng, 26 years old, graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Harbin Institute of Technology with a master's degree in industrial chemistry, and was a technician at Anshan Iron and Steel Plant;

Jiang Wentao, 24 years old, graduated from the Ship Design Department of Harbin Institute of Technology, and served as an assistant designer of Dalian Shipyard;

He Xin, 25 years old, graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Harbin Institute of Technology, and served as an assistant designer of the 773 Design Institute of the Ministry of Ordnance Industry;

Zhang Zhigao, 23 years old, graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of Guangxi Normal University;

Luo Sulan, aged 22, graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Yunnan University.

Guangxu was very interested in these literati, and kept asking them one by one, and he saw from the words of these people a completely new world, and saw the hope that the status quo could be completely changed, and understood that these people could satisfy his desire to show his ambition for a rich country and a strong army better than his teacher Weng Tonghe and those close ministers and advisors.

Liu Yun felt Guangxu's excitement.

He learned about the political ecology of 1890 from Wen Yi: in the central government, although the Empress Dowager Cixu "returned" to the Guangxu Emperor in 1889, she never forgot to seize power, and gathered some powerful figures in the court and the local area around her, forming a "post-party" group with her as the core. The latter party clique took control of the Central Authority's real power department, the Military Aircraft Department, and its main members included: Prince Li Shiduo, the foreman minister, Prince Yijing, the minister of the Navy, Sun Yuwen, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Zhang Zhiwan, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and the secretary of the Ministry of Households, such as Erle and Bu. Among them, Prince Yiyun and Sun Yuwen, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, are the most favored by the Queen Mother. The young Guangxu Emperor has been a puppet and tool in the hands of the Empress Dowager Cixu since he ascended the throne, and even after he was "pro-government", he was still in a powerless position. In order to change this situation of being controlled by others, he relied on his master Weng Tonghe and gathered some bureaucrats to compete with the Empress Dowager Cixi, that is, the "imperial party". Most of its core figures are the close ministers of Emperor Guangxu and Weng Tonghe's protégés, such as Concubine Zhen's brother Lang Zhirui and scholar Wen Tingshi, Weng Tonghe's friend Wang Mingluan, and protégé Zhang Jian, bachelor Lu Baozhong, etc., however, these people lack real power and cannot effectively check and balance the "Hou Party". In the locality, there are also Huai and Hunan systems. The Huai system, headed by Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, controlled the military of North China and most of the country's modern industries, and controlled the Beiyang Naval Division, the only naval fleet in the country with ocean-going combat effectiveness. The Hunan system headed by Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, and Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, controlled the rich Jiangnan region, and also developed part of the modern industry, Liu Kunyi concurrently served as the minister of Nanyang coastal defense, and controlled the Nanyang naval division that could still defend the Yangtze River region despite being hit hard after the Sino-French War, and the equipment level of the Hunan army was not inferior to that of the Huai army.

In this situation, he must first control the Empress Dowager Cixi, then gain the trust of the Guangxu Emperor, and then help Guangxu eliminate the "Hou Party", and at the same time develop the military and political forces composed of his commandos and literati, and then deal with the Huai and Hunan forces respectively.

In just a few dozen hours, he had already completed the first step, and the second step seemed to be on the verge of success, and if nothing else, the situation would turn in the direction he expected.

History, however, is a mixture of necessity and contingency, and history cannot be created without accidents.

Liu Yun and the others came to this past world, which was an accident in itself.

Accidents often lie in ambush on the side of Yangguan Avenue in the course of history, and when people are not noticing, they suddenly jump out and knock down, tear and devour some pedestrians on the road, while other pedestrians rob the relics of the deceased and then continue to move forward.