Beijing, Forbidden City. 《.

Early in the morning, under the leadership of Prince Gong, the five ministers of the Military Aircraft Department handed over the sign to the whole class, and the two palaces were summoned in the East Warm Pavilion of the Yangxin Palace. The special order is that Zeng Guofan, the governor of Zhili, will be present with the class.

Zeng Guofan arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon, and Prince Gong immediately met him. At that time, there were also Wen Xiang, Bao Jun, and Shen Guifen, three Western-style officials in the central government.

Why did Zeng Guofan rush to Beijing? Why did Prince Gong immediately see Zeng Guofan? That's why it's called today.

Jing Lian took Mongolia as the road and arrived at Beijing City with the excerpt of the victory of the battle of the Abu River in Xinjiang, although the excerpt had only arrived at the military aircraft for two days, but the influence of the excerpt had completely spread to the government and the opposition.

When Liu Xian marched into Xinjiang alone, who doesn't know the reason? The strong political atmosphere of Beijing has been passed down since ancient times, and the brothers in Beijing in later generations can talk about national affairs, and now the children of the Eight Banners in the four or nine cities are all natural loudspeakers.

These wastes who have eaten all day long and have nothing to do, playing tricks and putting their mouths out, each one is more powerful than the other. These people are in teahouses, theaters, and restaurants, and they are all pickled in the Xianghuai Army.

Liu Xian not only did not be swallowed up by the yellow sand desert, but won many battles, and a year ago, he broke the head of the rebel army in southern Xinjiang, Agu Bai, and saw that he was about to sweep away southern Xinjiang.

What kind of ear scraper is this that was pumped into the face of Xiang Huaijun?

Those Eight Banner disciples in Sijiu City who had long looked at the majesty of the Xianghuai Army were not pleasing to the eye, and now they got a handle and a chatter. Don't care about what kind of reversal will happen in Xinjiang after the victory of the Battle of the Abu River, every anti-war is wantonly ridiculing and damaging the Xianghuai army!

The estrangement between Prince Gong and the Hunan army has long been revealed with Zeng Guoquan's 'retreat'. Now they are still a relatively close-knit group - the Westernists.

This time, Zeng Guofan entered Beijing, because the two palaces wanted to choose important ministers to explain the situation of Xinjiang. Looking around the inside and outside of Beijing and its surroundings, there is no doubt that Zeng Guofan, who served as the governor of Zhili, was the best candidate.

But the 'pimple' between Zeng Guofan and Liu Xian is so obvious. It stands to reason that the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces should not bring Zeng Guofan closer, and this is obviously to embarrass Zeng Guofan. But after a little 'hesitation', the two palaces of Pianpian handpicked Zeng Guofan's name on the spot.

What is the reason, the Manchu Dynasty civil and military are well aware. The Empress Dowager of the West wanted to embarrass Zeng Guofan.

In April of this year, under the pretext of preparing for the wedding ceremony of Emperor Tongzhi, An Dehai got the permission of the Empress Dowager Cixi to go out of the palace to Jiangnan to buy dragon robes and prepare the things used in the wedding in the palace. And the results are obvious. When An Dehai traveled to Tai'an, Shandong, Ding Baozhen, a general of the Huai Department and the governor of Shandong at the time, violated the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty on the grounds that the eunuch went out of the capital to violate the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty. pressed to Jinan and cut off his head. This incident caused a sensation in the government and the opposition, and Ding Baozhen was praised by the world. But the Empress Dowager Cixi is very disgraced.

An Dehai was a confidant of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and served as a secret contact between the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces and Prince Gong Yixun during the Xinyou coup, and played a great role in the eventual ascension of this group of uncles and sisters-in-law. Later, he was promoted to the rank of chief eunuch. He has a prominent reputation in the DPRK.

is such a character, An Dehai, who was allowed to leave the palace by the Empress Dowager Cixi herself, and finally completed the last journey of her life with this extremely undignified death, and the Empress Dowager Cixi would be a saint if she was not extremely annoyed.

Perhaps Emperor Yu Tongzhi is more like a mother and son Empress Dowager Ci'an, and she doesn't want to see An Dehai, but she also understands that her majesty and Empress Dowager Cixi are in common weal and woe. Cixi's face is damaged, which is equivalent to her own face being swept away.

Now Cixi's obvious move to embarrass Zeng Guofan, Ci'an did not hold back. It's absolute support.

The Queen Mother of the Two Palaces was even more angry with Ding Baozhen and the Huai system, but it was impossible to attack Ding Baozhen directly. This can only make the government and the opposition slanderous, and make themselves even more despised by the courtiers. Li Hongzhang has already killed in the southwest again, and he is inseparable from Shi Da, who can be used to vent his anger, looking around Beijing, Zeng Guofan is the last one.

Prince Gong and the three military ministers of the Western-style faction met with Zeng Guofan and washed the dust with him. What he really said was not the Westernization Movement, nor the current war in the southwest and the war situation in Gansu, which the whole country is concerned about, but just gave Zeng Guofan enough face and asked him to hold back his anger when he was summoned by the two palaces tomorrow.

In front of the palace gate the next day. Zeng Guofan came to Jingyun Gate in a sedan chair, and the officials of the inner court greeted him at the door. To the right of Jingyun Gate is the Qianqing Gate, which is the main gate of the inner court. Qing Dynasty from Shunzhi to Daoguang, here is the place where the emperors of the past dynasties listened to the government, and after Xianfeng, it was changed to the palace of raising the heart. Now the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces is also in the Heart Cultivation Palace.

On the right side of the Qianqing Gate all the way to the Longzong Gate, there is a row of small connecting rooms. At the west end of the room is the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs, at the east end is the guard's room, and in the middle is the military aircraft department. At this moment, there are already several core figures of the current dynasty sitting here.

Before Zeng Guofan reached the Qianqing Gate, the ministers of military aircraft, Wen Xiang, Bao Jun, Shen Guifen, and Li Hongzao, heard the sound and welcomed him to the military aircraft department together.

In the second year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan left Beijing, when Wenxiang was the director of the Ministry of Engineering, Bao Jun was a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, Shen Guifen was the editor of the Hanlin Academy, and Li Hongzao was just ordered to Hanlin in this year.

In terms of position, all four of them were under Zeng Guofan; In terms of the name of the department, except for Baojun in the same year, the others are also juniors. The four ministers of military aircraft were very humble in front of Zeng Guofan.

Li Hongzao is a representative of the diehards, but he has also been respectful to Zeng Guofan recently, and he is also aware of the humiliation that Zeng Guofan will suffer today.

The five of them were talking speculatively, and the outside reported that Prince Gong had arrived. Zeng Guofan and the others walked out of the door together.

The five ministers of the Military Aircraft Department plus the governor of Zhili, the head of the world's governors, and the six most important ministers under the entire Manchu Qing system were all gathered. The queen mother of the two palaces in the inner court did not delay much and immediately sent eunuchs to announce the decree.

Zeng Guofan left Beijing for 18 years, and only returned to Beijing once in the middle, that is, last year, when he resigned from Liangjiang and was transferred to the governor of Zhili, he entered Beijing to thank him.

At that time, he met Emperor Tongzhi once, and also met the Empress Dowager Ci'an and Cixi.

Seriously, Zeng Guofan was quite disappointed in Emperor Tongzhi. has been the emperor for ** years, even if the queen mother of the two palaces is in charge of major events, people should have some emperors, right? At least a few superficial clichés will always be true, right? After all, there is a precedent for the emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

Now that the country is in trouble and the people's hearts are distracted, an emperor who can turn things around with force is needed. But what about Emperor Tongzhi? In Zeng Guofan's impression, he is a stuffy gourd who is 'silent from beginning to end, without a single word'. The fourteen-year-old weak Son of Heaven does not seem to be the second Holy Grandfather.

What makes Zeng Guofan even more worried is that the current Queen Mother of the Two Palaces, especially the Queen Mother of the West, who is good at taking power, is not the Queen Mother of the West in the first three years of 'Tongzhi'. Nine years have already allowed the Empress Dowager Cixi to grow into a qualified 'political family', and she has established prestige in the government and the opposition, and has drawn up a vote of party members.

The mother is strong and the son is weak, such as Emperor Hui of Lu Hou?

Zeng Guofan would not think about Cixi on Wu Zetian. The situation of the Manchu dynasty and its power structure determined the impossibility of Cixi's usurpation. Moreover, Cixi's three brothers are not talented people, and the family power is not prosperous, and Cixi does not allow them to 'show their heads' at all, which even won her a lot of support in the clan.

Prince Gong and Zeng Guofan arrived at the door of Dongnuan Pavilion. As soon as the eunuch entered, a clear and beautiful woman's voice came from inside: "Please Gong Wangye, come in!" ”

Zeng Guofan knew that this was the golden mouth of the Eastern Empress Dowager, and subconsciously straightened his clothes and straightened his body. The two eunuchs raised the bright yellow satin cotton curtains, Prince Gong was the first, the foreman of the banner man and the military aircraft; Zeng Guofan is not the Minister of Military Aircraft, but he is ahead of Li Hongzao and Shen Guifen, and is the foreman of the Han military aircraft. When he entered Beijing last year, he met with the Tongzhi Emperor and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces, and he received such courtesy. Now Li Hongzao and Shen Guifen are still willing to join the queen.

Bending down to enter the door, taking two steps forward, the six people knelt down on their legs together, and shouted: "Honorable Saint Ann! ”

"The family is exempt." It's another nice woman's Beijing accent, but the timbre is softer than the previous one.

If it weren't for Zeng Guofan, who had never seen the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces, he would have thought that the voice in front was the Empress Dowager Cixi, and the voice in the back was the Empress Dowager Ci'an. After all, the Empress Dowager Ci'an treats people generously, which everyone in the world has heard.

But the opposite is true. The one with a soft voice is the strong woman Cixi.

Zeng Guofan stood up and raised his eyes to see the whole layout, which was still the same as when he met him last year. The emperor sat on the throne in the front, his figure seemed to be thinner than last year, his face was also pale, and he looked childish, and his eyes looked at the curtain in the distance, and did not look at them. The Queen Mother who spoke just now sat in the north, and there was also one in the south, and there was a thin layer of yellow curtain in front of the Queen Mother of the two palaces.

The Empress Dowager Ci'an sits in the south, and the Empress Dowager Cixi sits in the north. This is a fact that all officials above the third rank in the world are well aware of.

"Sixth master, Jing Lian sent someone good news from Xinjiang the day before yesterday. Liu Xian won a big battle in a place called the Abu River. Wiped out tens of thousands of Agubai's main forces, and now that they have taken Yarkand completely, they have begun to start the offensive in Kashgar. ”

"My sister and I are both women's families, and we can't understand the military situation of this war. Today, I asked you to come just to listen to what you have to say, what the war situation in Xinjiang can become! Another is when the chaos in Xinjiang can be calmed down.

I heard that the Russians have been making noise in the Prime Minister's Yamen recently, and the sixth master should have a deep understanding. Xinjiang is next to the mouth of the Russians, and it is not in a hurry when it will be suppressed, but don't let the Russians bite again. Like the Heilongjiang side, but no! ”

"And the British. Tens of thousands of foreign guns, dozens of foreign cannons......"

It was the Empress Dowager Cixi who spoke.

Zeng Guofan really gave the Empress Dowager Cixi a thumbs up in his heart. The children of the Eight Banners and the officials of Beijing all over the capital, either praise Liu Xian for his ability to fight, or joke that he 'steals chickens does not make rice', how many people can really see the crisis in Xinjiang clearly? (To be continued......)